Starship Troopers

The Bug War—or “‘The Third Space War’ (or the ‘Fourth’),” or “The First Interstellar War” (138), is the battle between Earth and two alien species, known informally as Bugs and Skinnies. Earth and its planetary colonies are at risk. The war begins as a series of skirmishes that harden into battle lines around the time Johnnie completes his Mobile Infantry training. Johnnie is deployed to fight in that war, which surges back and forth and remains unresolved at the end of the novel. 

The first location of Johnnie’s Mobile Infantry training, Camp Currie is located somewhere on the North American prairie, far from civilian towns, where Johnnie and his fellow recruits suffer through the first months of toughening up. Trainees who survive this gauntlet move to Camp Spooky in the Canadian Rockies. 

Camp Spooky “was much like Camp Currie (aside from its rugged setting) but it was much smaller” (127). Camp Spooky is located in the Canadian Rockies, where Mobile Infantry recruits learn how to control powered suits. Spooky is within shuttle distance of Vancouver, and recruits can spend their Sunday leave in that city and elsewhere.

The Cherenkov Drive is the engine that permits spaceships to travel faster than light. Federation ships have drives capable of “Mike 400 or better” (213), which means a ship can travel 400 times the speed of light and traverse a few dozen light years in several weeks. During the Bug War, warships use the Cherenkov Drive to travel to numerous planets and engage in battle there. 

Federal Service—basically, the Terran Federation military and support units—is voluntary, requires a minimum two-year stint with extra time during emergencies, and, if completed successfully, entitles the volunteer to full citizenship rights, including voting and holding office. Most Earth civilians exhibit little interest in so potentially grueling an assignment, especially as regular civilian life is prosperous and easy. Only the truly dedicated sign up. 

A standard high-school class, History and Moral Philosophy is taught around the world and at the planetary colonies. Johnnie’s instructor is Mr. Dubois, a cranky, demanding teacher who holds Johnnie to a high standard. The class looks at many ethical issues, among them the meaning of citizenship, the nature of duty, and why full voting rights are earned through service. In OCS training, Johnnie encounters the course again; this time, it’s even more challenging. Class discussions bend toward the conclusion that virtue is placing other people before oneself, and that the highest virtue is to risk one’s life for others. 

Klendathu is the home planet of the alien species known informally as “Bugs” for their insect-like appearance. Johnnie’s Mobile Infantry attack the planet as part of the “Bug War” between Earth and the Bugs and Skinnies; the attack is a disaster. 

Mobile Infantry, or MI, or “cap troopers” (“cap” is short for “capsule,” the pods in which soldiers are launched from spaceships), are the elite corps of soldiers who drop from orbit onto enemy terrain while wearing weaponized powered suits. Their training is difficult and exacting, much like that of commandos, and their field work can be devastating to an enemy. The MI becomes Johnnie’s family, a brotherhood of soldiers highly trained, lethal in combat but loyal to each other to a fault. 

In terms of training and advancement, the military of the future is much like the one of today, and soldiers who would be officers must attend school and learn how to lead platoons into battle. Johnnie says, of OCS:

It’s like Basic, but squared and cubed with books added […] math, science, galactography, xenology, hypnopedia, logistics, strategy and tactics, communications, military law, terrain reading, special weapons, psychology of leadership, anything from the care and feeding of privates to why Xerxes lost the big one. Most especially how to be a one-man catastrophe yourself while keeping track of fifty other men, nursing them, loving them, leading them, saving them—but never babying them (182).

The school and the Mobile Infantry in general emphasize excellence, grit, and perseverance, along with mutual loyalty and a sense of self-sacrifice. 

Also called “powered armor,” these suits augment the wearer’s motions; they include jets for flying, munitions for firing, and telemetry and communication systems: “While off the ground in a jump, you can get a range & bearing, pick a target, talk & receive, fire a weapon, reload, decide to jump again without landing and override your automatics to cut in the jets again. You can do all of these things in one bounce, with practice” (108). Powered suits are the main tools of the Mobile Infantry; they’re worn during raids against alien planets.