In the military code of conduct, Article 9080 specifically forbids any soldier from striking a higher-up. Penalties range from 10 lashes and a bad-conduct discharge to death by hanging. Recruit Hendricks violates 9080 by slugging Sergeant Zim and receives the lashes and discharge, but Zim and commanding officer Frankel agree that it was Zim’s fault for letting down his guard. 

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.