I still don't get what you mean by food bin.
With much of the population out to war, and the world filled with dangerous purple alien spherical blobs, who exactly is going to produce, process, and deliver the food that is meant to keep everyone fed? The only thing that probably helps food shortages is the quantity of people dying. If it's a plot device meant to show how undisciplined the kids were, all the more reason for them to get punished for it, or at least yelled at.
2. The students aren't quite treated as regular soldiers, and the school is no bootcamp
They have to live there. They have to live in cramped communal conditions. They have to rise early. The privacy curtain separating the genders is removed right at wake up time making it difficult for them to get dressed for the day. They have chains of military authority. They have to obey all orders. Failure to perform results in group punishment. There are no regular classes. They are required to learn things like fighting with a knife, even though that is useless against alien purple blobs. Or hunt down shell casings even though there is no real good reason for that. How is it not a boot camp?
BTW, I bet with that girl who found the shell, went to the bathroom, then brought it out again, maybe it was a unspent bullet, and she replaced it with a shell so she had a extra bullet, which would be smart.
But it's not that I disagree with you about the live ammo being issued to the students - reason prevailed as the platoon leader convinced the captain to issue live ammo (though only 5 bullets per person). I was just explaining the reasoning behind the captain's reluctance to issue them.
The compromise of 5 bullets per person is funny, if someone accidentally shoots a fellow student, you think 5 or 50 bullets will matter? But if they get attacked, they might need a a great deal, especially with limited aiming capability. So it's a nonsensical compromise. Hopefully the group leader has extra bullets that can quickly be handed out or this will be even more of a travesty.
Well, I suppose if bullets are limited in quantity, it means they won't waste em all in a blast at the first sign of a threat. To prevent that, I would make sure that no rifles could attack in auto and maybe limit the number of loaded bullets. (but still giving them extra bullets on their person to quickly load in)
but as you can see, the situation doesn't seem to be that urgent
They discontinued classes, turned the school into a boot camp and students into soldiers in a rushed way. The purple spheres are EVERYWHERE in massive quantities, and proven to be very dangerous.
How could that not be signs of urgency? If they really thought that the situation wasn't that urgent, regular classes would be continuing, the boot camp would be set off site and something the kids would go to after school, or something. Clearly the military knew the situation was dire from the start, how could they not with what was witnessed of the spheres from the start. They didn't count on the kids having to even cut the 4 weeks short, but clearly to me, they expected those kids to see action.
mean, this isn't quite like one of those apocalyptic zombie movies
Zombies can be brought down. The large spheres, well they don't even know if those can be destroyed yet or what dangerous consequences would happen if they tried. These purple things reproduce like zombies too (one kill, one new enemy it seems) I think zombies would be safer, with more hope for the future. (well, depends on how fast, strong etc)
So by promising CSAT points, it assures kids and general populace that the society still functions and gives them hope for a future
The kids sure, but the general population wasn't even in the classroom when they promised the CSAT points.
If your going to turn kids into soldiers who are meant to lay down their lives, don't give them false hope, especially recruiting them with said false hope. And since the points won't matter, basically they go unrewarded. We don't even know that they are going to get paid for this (assuming money still matters at this rate)
And even if authorities honestly thought that CSAT scores would matter next year, and that the kids wouldn't likely see action, of which I both highly doubt. I am sure it became obvious quickly enough that such was not the case. I suppose they worry about heavy desertion, but to string the kids along like that and tell them nothing as they they are marched into a den of death, its really rather ugly and despicable. And then to give them only 5 bullets to protect them on the way... Presumably no bullets if it weren't for the rumors of the small cells. I bet those corpses are from another class of student soldiers who didn't have a single bullet to protect themselves.
Edited by truepurple, 16 August 2013 - 06:29 PM.