Ask HN: How to Respond to Company Hiring in Bad Faith

I am a grad student that recently took a 3 month internship at a medium sized startup. After tendering a leave of absence from grad school, vacating my apartment, moving across a large country, and paying for a short term rental in a high cost market, the startup laid off all contingent employees and is still operating with statutory employees. This literally happened within 5 minutes of reporting for work. I am at the start of my post-grad career so I don't really want to start legal action, but my total financial impact is greater than $20k in lost wages and time. Does anyone have advice?

I am hesitant to provide much additional detail at this time but I am also uncertain how to proceed.