Juvenile infantry | |
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The remains of Platoon EXT-04 after battling over a flag in Phase 19. | |
Origin | Leviathan 1 Mars |
Type | Child soldier |
Notable members | Giraud Zazie (Formerly) |
Debut | Phase 16 (mentioned) |
Juvenile infantry, literally "infantry children" (児童歩兵 Jidō Hohei?) in Japanese, are a type of legally accepted child soldier. Found on Leviathan 1 and on Mars, the practice is tolerated by LADDER.
History[]
One of the side effects of Ping Wu's public revelation of Methuselyzation was a dramatic decrease in the valuation of human life. Because people could now effectively live forever and only die through accidents or violent means, children are now seen as redundant and unnecessary. Unwanted children tend to be abandoned to fend for themselves and are either picked up by institutions for disposal[1] or by juvenile infantry schools, with the latter effectively a form of slavery. The value of children is still recognised by only a few, most notably the Mars Kingdom Parliament, which has officially rejected Methuselyzation, and the Stellar Nursery Society, which actively rescues them.
On Leviathan 1 juvenile infantry are used to battle for flags in the Combat Chamber as a means of earning money for their schools' owners, as the Administration places bounties on the flags to encourage high casualties. On Mars two of the factions, the Mars Front der Befreien and the Mars Republik Heer, capture children for use in juvenile infantry, possibly on the battlefield.[2]
Zazie is a former juvenile infantryman and was a member of Colonel Payne's school, suggesting that she is originally from Leviathan 1. She managed to survive the Combat Chamber and lived long enough to be able to leave and serve Queen Limeira. Payne considered her to be one of the school's finest graduates.[3]
Plot[]
Giraud was a young boy who tried to escape from Payne's school but was turned into the Adminipolice by Alita on Martin Tsang's advice. After learning what his real situation was from Zazie, the two along with Sechs entered the Combat Chamber to head off Giraud's platoon after Limeira bought them at the main juvenile infantry school office. However the platoon did not have a communications device and Alita and Zazie were too late, as it had been wiped out in battle over a flag. The experience was so heartrending for Alita that she killed Colonel Payne shortly after he arrived on the scene and was driven to capture all of the flags in the Combat Chamber with Zazie and Sechs' aid to put a temporary halt to the fighting and spare any more children. Alita later had difficulty in facing the Guntroll during Round 1 of the Tenth Zenith of Things Tournament when she learned that they took in abandoned children.