2524 Talitsa Massacre

The 2524 Talitsa Massacre was a war atrocity committed by the on the planet of . The act was perpetrated by a squad of troopers from the planet's garrison, and turned out to be a PR nightmare for the UNSC, as images of the dead officers circulated and propaganda based off the act circulated around the galaxy. It was only the arrival of the that diverted the population's attention, and stopped a full-on coup from occurring on for the time beig.
==Overview==
===Prelude===
The root of the 2524 Talitsa Massacre lay in the already heated tensions on the planet between and . These relations only grew worse as a result of , and violence against troops by regular citizens became all too common. However, in October of 2524, the , in one of its biggest victories over the , captured nearly forty rebel officers from deep inside territory swarming with , and brought them back to held areas.
Placed in a temporary detention center with other rebel fighters, the rebel officers were brought out every day for work detail. On guard at the camp was Sergeant Francis Daniels, who had been assigned to prison camp duty after a particularly traumatic incident on the planet where his entire squad, save for him and another private, were killed by rebel forces. This left a lasting animosity between him and the , which violently broke out on December 4th, 2524.
===The Massacre===
Gathering up other soldiers, Daniels volunteered himself and the group for guard duty on work detail for the rebels. Receiving his orders, Daniels and his squad led out around 30-35 of the rebel officers on what appeared to be a routine work detail. However, once the column was out of site, Daniels and his men led the rebels into a nearby forest, and had them stand in a straight line. Raising the they had acquired through the corrupt , Daniels and his squad quickly cut down the rebels, before burying them in shallow graves.
Punching each other in various areas to simulate wounds given by unarmed rebels, the troopers returned to camp, and stated the rebels had overwhelmed them and escaped. As such incidents had occurred in the past, the base commander believed them, and ordered patrols to sweep the forests for the alleged escapees. Nearly three days after they started the patrols, the troopers found the decomposing bodies of the rebel officers, and, after several forensic investigations on the rebels, it was confirmed they had indeed been executed.
As a trial went on for the suspected conspirators, Sergeant Daniels and his squad, the tried frantically to stop the news from getting out, however, one who was at the exhumation of the bodies taped the bodies, and the footage soon fell into the hands of the .
===Aftermath===
In the aftermath of the discovery of the atrocity by the , the had a veritable PR disaster in the wake of the massacre, especially on . Propaganda interpretations of the massacre and stills from the militiaman's video were plastered across recruitment posters for the rebellion. On Tribute, the violence against troops skyrocketed, and martial law was declared in several major metropolitan centers. It was only the arrival of the later in coupled with the doling out of justice to the guilty parties that barely halted what could have one of the bloodiest coups in the history of the . However, the massacre was still used as an example of UNSC war atrocities by the well into the 2550's.
Category:Blood on the Sand