Indomitable (53 page)

JOHN KAGAME:
All excellent points, Your Majesty. What about the Republic's office of the president? Can't anyone aspire to the highest position in the RAW? Surely you see the point, Your Majesty.

QUEEN AURILYN II:
(the queen smiles and shakes her head, no) Seeing isn't believing, John. Supposedly anyone can rise to the highest office of the land in the Republic of Aligned Worlds. The Republic likes to trot that out whenever it's feeling particularly uppity. Anyone, no matter their station at birth or genetics or ancestry, can become president of the Republic of Aligned Worlds. Utter rubbish again! The truth is their president and cabinet, Senate and House, and High Court and all their NGOs and unelected bureaucrats, are bought and paid for by their lawyers and lobbyists and their shadow corporate congress, all behind closed doors … and against their own laws I might add.
     At least we are open, honest, and transparent about giving our peers a significant stake in the governance and the economic prosperity of the Lusitanian Empire and all her member worlds. The Republic, well, I dislike using the word “liars.” The bar for that must be very high. You do take my point.

 

GLOSSARY

(not at all exhaustive)

A.E.
   after Earth

AI
   artificial intelligence

ALCON
   all considered

ANDES
   Android Enemy Soldier, but commonly used to refer to android sentinels, friendly or foe

APER
   armor-piercing explosive round

Armorplaste
   a clear, high-strength, military-grade polycarbonate material (pronounced armorplasty); sometimes shortened to “plaste”

Aye
   yes

Aye, aye
   “I understand and will comply”

Bag-drag
   to be transferred, or to ship out

BAT-CO
   battalion commander

BATRON
   battlecruiser squadron

Beegees
   the underarmor worn by mechsuit drivers, which prevents chafing while “suited” and affords the wearer some protection against small-arms and energy fire; beegees are acceptable attire in place of utilities while aboard ship and sometimes referred to as a “body glove”

BMR
   Battlefield Mapping Reticule (projects a compressed three-dimensional display of energy signatures into the wearer's field of view)

Bravo Zulu
   well done

BUMED
   Bureau of Medicine, or Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

BUMIL
   Bureau of Military Intelligence. BUMIL is the shortened form of BUMILINT (BU-MIL-INT), with “Intelligence” omitted and understood, and is the source of many jokes in several military traditions. In the Republic of Aligned Worlds, for instance, BUMIL also refers to the collective intelligence communities of the entire military, including NAVINT (Naval Intelligence) and MARINT (Marine Intelligence). One may insult the military's intelligence—BUMIL—without specifically disparaging a particular branch of service.

BUPERS
   Bureau of Personnel

BUWEPS
   Bureau of Weapons Development

CAR
   short for “carbine,” a long arm with a shorter barrel than a rifle

CIC
   Combat Information Center, or Combat Intelligence Center

Civvie
   a civilian

Civvies
   civilian clothes

Comm
   communications device (adjective, verb, or noun)

COMSEC
   communications security

Copy
   as in “copy that”—or “I heard what you just said”

Crossed Anchors and Charger
   the official emblem and insignia of the Lusitanian Imperial Navy

CRURON
   cruiser squadron

CZ
   cruiser

Deck
   the floor or surface of the earth

Delta sierra
   DS, or “dumb shit”

Eve
   or Echo-Victor-One, a code name for a female prisoner

EWO
   Electronics Warfare Officer

Ferrocrete
   a military-grade material that is poured to make roads and landing pads for light attack craft and shuttles

FGL
   Flexible Grenade Launcher, capable of firing an assortment of explosive ordnance

Fighting hole
   a defensive position dug into the ground

FOB
   forward operating base

Fruit Salad
also called glittery; medals and service ribbons worn by uniformed military

FTL
   faster than light

GEHAK
   Gravitic-Enhanced High-Altitude Bunker-Killer

GLOCK
   a popular twentieth-century semi-automatic firearm created by Gaston Glock that revolutionized the small-arms industry with its polymer frame; became known as the “plastic gun”

Gunny
   nickname for a gunnery sergeant (but not for a master gunnery sergeant)

HALO
   High-Altitude, Low-Opening (e.g., “HALO drop”; “HALO jump”)

HAWC
   Health and Wellness Center

HG
   heavy gravity (e.g., “HG world”)

HMS
   His/Her Majesty's Ship, used before the name of space-faring warships

Horde missiles
   small antipersonnel/antiarmor missiles launched in packets, or “hordes,” that are designed to swamp an enemy's defenses

HUD
   heads-up display

HV
   hypervelocity (e.g., “HV round”)

HVT
   high-value target

ILW
   Independent League of Worlds, a now-defunct coalition of nonaligned planets in the Rim, or verge. The planet Montana initially led the league before joining the Republic of Aligned Worlds. After Montana's departure, the ILW fell apart.

J-CIC
   Joint Combat Intelligence Command

JSA
   Justification for System Activation (which is a PITA to fill out)

Klick
   kilometer

KZ
   kill zone

LAC
   light attack craft, the workhouse of most space Marine Corps. A LAC is typically a system-bound (i.e., non-jump-capable) craft capable of interplanetary and atmospheric flight. There are several classes of LAC, which range widely in size. Most warships carry a small complement of LACs to support their Marine detachments.

LE
   Lusitanian Empire, a constitutional monarchy with a hereditary king or queen as the head of state, a lower House of Commons composed of elected officials, and an upper House of Lords

Liberty
   authorized free time ashore or off-station that is not counted as leave

LIDAR
   or LiDAR, a remote sensing technology from the twentieth century that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser and analyzing the reflected light; the terms originated as a combination of “light” and “radar”

LOS
   line of sight

Lusie
   a derogatory term used by Republicans and citizens of other star nations when referring to the Lusitanians (from the LE)

LZ
   landing zone

MARINT
   Marine Intelligence

MBP
   mini Bi-Polar rifle, an electromagnetic projectile launcher (an electromagnetic rail gun)

Mechsuit
   mechanized suit of battle armor. Before the advent of powered armor, the word “mechanized” referred to soldiers equipped with armored vehicles. Mechsuits are roughly humanoid with interlocking plates of armor that protect the driver. Modern militaries prefer a plug-and-play platform and semi-autonomous AI assists.

MEDSYS
   medical emergency triage system

Mess dress
   uniform worn at formal occasions and roughly equivalent to civilian black-tie

Mike
   minute

Mike-mike
   millimeter

MOI
   Ministry of Intelligence

MOLLE
   Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment (pronounced “molly”)

MOS
   Military Occupational Specialty

MRS
   Mobile Recharging Station (for handheld energy weapons); also Misses

NAVCOM
   Navigation and Communications

NAVINT
   Naval Intelligence

NCO
   noncommissioned officer

Ninety-day wonder
   an officer commissioned in a military branch after an unusually short training period

Noncom
   noncommissioned officer

OCS
   Officer Candidate School

Overhead
   ceiling of a building or ship

Peristeel
   an alloy used to make mechsuits, small land and aerial craft, and warship armor

PF
   platform or space station, often but not always a military installation

PFC
   private first class

Pharmacope
   a Marine's personal bank of drugs, typically implanted in the thigh; a mechsuit's MEDSYS contains a backup

'Publican
   a derogatory term used by Lusitanians when referring to Republicans (from the RAW)

Rack
   bed

RAW
   Republic of Aligned Worlds, a democratic republic of worlds that won its independence from the Terran Federation in 2481 C.E.

RAW-FF
   Republic of Aligned Worlds Fleet Forces, an umbrella term referring to the collective military branches of the Republic: Marine Corps, Navy, and Sector Guard

RAW-MC
   Republic of Aligned Worlds Marine Corps

Regular dress
   roughly equivalent in form and function to a civilian business suit

Rim
   the outskirts of human civilization—a rim planet or rim world is typically poor and nonaligned, often plagued by rampant poverty and lawlessness; the term is often used interchangeably with “verge,” although it is considered a derogatory term by rimworlders

RNS
   Republican Naval Ship (or Republican Naval Warship—with “war” being understood), used before the name of Republican space-faring warships

Roger
   as in “Roger that”—or “I understand what you just said”

RPP
   Remotely Piloted Platform

SAC
   Standard Atmospheric Conditions

SAM
   a surface-to-air or ground-to-air missile

SAR
   search and rescue; also, “sounds about wrong”

SARG
   Semi-Autonomous Reasoning Grunt, a mechsuit driver's AI assist

Scuttlebutt
   gossip or a rumor

Seabag
   a duffel bag

SECCOM
   Sector Command

Semper Fidelis
   “Always Faithful” or “Always Loyal”

Semper Paratus
   “Always Ready,” the official slogan of the RAW-MC

Seraph, globe, and anchor
   the official emblem and insignia of the RAW-FF

SERE
   Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape school

SITREP
   “situation report”

Skipper
   nickname for the captain of a warship or the captain of a company of Marines

Skivvies
   undergarments, including skivvy shirts and skivvy drawers

SNCO
   staff noncommissioned officer

SNEAK
   Stealth-Navigation-Evasion-Adaptation-Kill suit

Snotty cruise
   an ensign's first mission after successfully completing her or his officer's training, often at a service academy

SOP
   standard operating procedure

SPECOPS
   Special Operations Forces, or Special Operators, or Special Forces

Striker
   sniper

Tango down
   target eliminated or neutralized

TF
   task force; also, Terran Federation, the first and largest star nation in the 'verse (Terrans consider the abbreviation a veiled insult)

UAV
   unmanned aerial vehicle; broadly used to mean a drone that can operate in atmospheric conditions as well as in vacuum

Utilities
   designed for wear in the field, the standard working uniform for deployed and most garrison Marines and Sailors

Vacsuit
   garment capable of withstanding harsh environments, vacuum, and the extreme cold of space; often worn inside warships and small craft during combat as a precaution in case of loss of atmospheric containment and necessary for extravehicular activities

Verge
   derogatory term for the outskirts of human civilization—a “verge” planet is typically poor and nonaligned, often plagued by rampant poverty and lawlessness; the term is often used interchangeably with “Rim”

VTOL
   Vertical Takeoff and Landing vehicle

Webs
   short for “webshorts” and “webvests,” loose-fitting clothing with MOLLE gear woven into the fabric

Whisker
   a small drone used for reconnaissance by many militaries and clandestine services across the 'verse

WILCO
   I have received your last message, understand it, and “will comply”