The only way to leave the Insect Girl Corps was by aging out or dying in combat—and the latter path was most common. Even gaining weight until you were too heavy for your wings was not an option. The bio-designers had foreseen that particular escape route and engineered the girls with special gut bacteria that forbade calorie utilization above a daily maximum. Any extra calories just got shunted into increased production of the hormone irisin, which stimulated a shiver response that burned up the excess food as heat. The wracking sensations could become unpleasant enough to deter even a determined diet abuser from trying to stuff herself into a dishonorable discharge.
And so it went with all aspects of the martial lives of the Insect Girls. As the girls always said, half rueful, half blit
