[ WP ] The year is 2025 , major leaders across the world agree that sending young people to war is unethical , and sign up to mandatory service of people over the age of 55 . Skip forward 5 years , WW3 has just broken out .

In my younger days we used to say that war was a game the old played for which the young paid. They do n't say that anymore. 
 
 In fact now it's quite the opposite. Our dear president is this 40 year old snot-nosed kid who probably read a bit too much into Eskimo culture -- you know, those stories about how they put their old on ice floes and push'em out to sea? Well, same principle. Only now they're pushing us out to war. 
 
 Please do n't get the meaning wrong. War, I believe is unethical in all its forms. No matter to what moral end you aspire to achieve, the means will always be immoral. I certainly would n't want to see a young lad in the prime of his life being mowed down by an M50. But in this case, the most immoral thing is pulling me out of retirement to fight a battle where that young lad could at least run away from the bullets! 
 
 Last night, Marge, or'Ma' as the unit calls her, broke her knee again. Second time this year. 
 
 When she was conscripted she was the healthiest of us all. Actually, that was the main requirement to stay in the Army, which reduced the draftees to about ten thousand. Now, I'm not reluctant to say that Ma is the most beaten and battered of all Alpha Company. And the war has n't even started. 
 
 I asked her why in hell would she want to stay in this hell hole. `` At 62, stuck in that home,'' she said, `` away from my family and kids, and with nothing to look forward to, I thought I'd finally live the life of excitement I always wanted.'' 
 
 As the medic bandaged the flesh-wound she sustained during battlefield inoculation, she turned to me and said somberly, `` I wish I was back at the home now.'' 
 
 It's the same for all of us. 
 
 Basic training has taken over a year where it would normally take a regular Army unit about four months. For many of us, this is no different from the war we're about to endure in a few months time. 
 
 Last night Trigger, or Major Price rather, the only one here to have been to war in his young days fell asleep during Stealth Training. And Johnny Winters, died during Airborne Training -- heart just stopped midair. I supposed that could've happened to any young soldier too, but I find it hard to believe that the Army did n't know JW had a heart condition. 
 
 For Trigger, the young idiots yelling at his face to `` drop down and give me five!'' was just routine. What really pissed him off, he said, was that they'd scare some of the old folks so bad they actually pissed themselves while at attention. 
 
 `` Back then,'' he explained shaking from his gout, `` I could run with over 60 pounds on my back. Now, I do n't have a back left to support my rifle. And I have to take a piss doing it!'' 
 
 We laugh. That's we all have really. Laughing and telling old stories of our youth. And asking ourselves who in the hell thought it was a good idea to conscript the least able members of society to go to war. Well it was n't until later that we figured out what WWIII really was. As it turns out, ours is not the only army that has conscripted old folks. It's now pretty clear what all of this really is. 
 
 For now, we have no choice but to continue the training. But Alpha Company has unanimously decided that come Friday, the buck stops with us. We are going to mount a resistance against the COs. We've lived decent lives. Perhaps not fulfilling for all of us, but deserving of respect as elders. 
 
 This is the last entry in this log. 
 
 If any of the COs find this before Marge and Trigger are dead, know that we'll be coming for you. Do n't bother looking for answers. We have delivered those who ca n't go on one more day of their pain. And you're next. Let this be known as the Elder Rebellion! 
 
 -- Wednesday Aug 10th 2025
