Glossary

Temporary note for readers of the "in-progress" version of Independent Command: If you see a term used in the story but not defined, and you cannot figure out from context what it means, please check here. If you cannot find it here either, please tell the author who will add it to this Glossary.

When the Confederacy came to us for help with the Sa'arm, they had advanced technology but no weapons. They didn't do that sort of thing. That's just not a problem for us humans, we've been thinking hard about space warfare for over a century, starting in 1898 when H.G. Wells' published his "War of the Worlds". We already know what weapons we want to put on our ships, if you will just help us build them ... No wonder they are almost as scared of us as they are the Sa'arm.

Note that, as the vast majority of early volunteers came from all the various descendants of the British empire (US Navy, South African Army, etc), the Confederacy Navy speaks English and was orginally organized by USN and Royal Navy people. It uses USN terms with a strong leavening from the RN and other NATO allies. Of course, we are fighting for our species' life. We don't care where a good idea comes from. If it works we will use it.

AAR - After Action Report - A formal/final report on an event or series of events, usually combat, put together by the victors or survivors, or separate investigators if survivors were not available. An AAR usually includes a tactical plot replay, a video presentation that shows the relative positions and actions of all involved. The TPR is often set up for dramatic and entertainment value. The rest of the AAR is a collection of addendums cataloging every aspect (ships, damage, etc). When available, the TPR often includes live commentary from the participants, as that usually gives the viewers an understanding of why decisions were made the way they were.

AI - Artificial Intelligence - a device of sufficient computing power that it cannot be recognized, by blind conversation, as a manufactured device. This is the original "Turing Test". Once the first one is functional, it can be used to help design and build much more capable ones, and a society which has them available for general use will undergo a vast transformation. Confederacy society is driven by AIs, as all equipment more complicated than a shovel will have integrated control systems with hooks for AIs to manage them.

Bridge - The compartment where the helmsman, OOD, or CO can visually see how close the ship is to the pier, the repair frame, or the landing pad. This implies a window or port, which in turn dictates that this compartment is not armored and protected in the middle of the ship. This space holds the ship's official "helm" or directional control station. For space ships that are large enough/complex enough to have a CIC, the nominally "main" helm station on the Bridge is usually not manned. Instead, the "main" helm station is usually slaved to the nominal "backup" helm station in CIC. Smaller vessels that are completely controlled by one or two "pilots" from the Bridge often call it the "cockpit".

Bullet-Sponge - A sailor's term for those passengers who serve no purpose beyond getting in the way of a bullet intended for someone more valuable. While a professional bodyguard might take it as a compliment, most Marines don't react well to the label.

BuPers - In the US Navy, the Bureau of Personnel, that mass of office workers responsible for the acquisition, training, assignment, and management of the Navy's people. Actually, this Bureau is remarkable for it's ability to rapidly change policies as the real world changes. Whatever the formal name of the Confederacy's personnel directorate, USN veterans will call it "BuPers".

BuShips - In the US Navy, the Bureau of Shipbuilding and Repair, that unwieldy mass of office workers responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, and repair of all the Navy's ships. While they are frequently cursed for their glacial speed, they deal with 15-year-lead-time contracts with commercial shipyards to develop and produce equipment and systems for ships we haven't built yet and may well cancel so it's not all their fault. Whatever the formal name of the Confederacy's shipbuilding directorate, USN veterans will call it "BuShips".

C1, C2, C3, C4 - Shipboard readiness level, as "Condition #". Each ship will have its own manning lists, showing where each crew member will be for each condition. Ships in the same class will generally have similar lists. Condition 1 is basically completely unmanned, in port with a very small skeleton crew aboard and often referred to as an "anchor watch". C2 is normal underway with nothing exciting happening -ho hum, another three days until arrival.

C3 is the important one, the manning level that people call "Battlestations". This is the manning level that has people at every post that we want people at, when we are shooting at an enemy and getting shot at in return. This gives the ship the maximum ability to fight and to repair damage. However, it comes at a cost: All of your best people are busy. The CO is in CIC, the best gunner is on the biggest gun. If Joey needs to go to the bathroom, whoever relieves him reduces the ship's combat capability because he isn't as good as Joey. If he was, then he would be the one manning that station at C3, and Joey would be the backup. Staying at C3 for too long leads to gradual at first, then rapidly increasing reductions in combat efficiency as people under stress get tired.

C4 is a fiction, the unofficial "condition" level that is referred to for what happens if you lose a fight, the struggle to abandon a stricken ship before it is too late. Note that Confederacy warship AIs have orders to prevent enemy access to advanced technology, so if a ship is in danger of capture the ship will self-destruct to prevent such, making crew evacuation an urgent matter.

CAP - Capability, Aptitude, Potential - Apparently chosen for it's ability to make a catchy-sounding acronym, the CAP is a system for testing what an individual is capable of right now, as well as his/her capability for future growth with proper training. The Confederacy needed a combat force to contain the Sa'arm. However, anyone able to beat the Swarm was self-evidently even more dangerous than the Swarm, so the Confederacy insisted upon controls.

Only those individuals with the intelligence to learn, the sociability to follow orders, and the ability to have loyalty to a higher concept than "self" were allowed to volunteer for service in the Confederacy Navy and Marine Corps. At first, they concentrated on intelligence as necessary to understand all the advanced equipment. Later, as issues emerged with early volunteers, we started paying more attention to other factors ... See "Volunteer" and "Concubine"

CIC - Combat Information Center - The US Navy's term for the protected room that holds the main control stations for all the various ship and combat systems on a warship. Contrast this with the Bridge, DC, and ECR. Few non-warships have a CIC, as it is an unnecessary waste of space. A freighter will usually just have a bridge, with all control stations there.

CIWS - pronounced "seawizz" - Close-In Weapon System, a US-developed integrated antimissile system that uses a gatling gun and radar to destroy incoming missiles. They work well but are very short ranged and tend to run through their ammo quickly. In full automatic mode they will fire on, and destroy, any incoming object without regard to IFF status.

The cononical example of a "blue on blue" CIWS incident is any helicopter in the area, because the radar keys on incoming objects like missiles. The main rotors, as they turn, will be sweeping towards the ship on one side of the chopper, and away from the ship on the other side. CIWS has no trouble hitting a target as small as a helicopter's rotor blade. Helicopters do not fly well with their main rotors shot off.

CNS, CAS, CMS - "Flag" designation for Confederacy ships. This is completely unnecessary as long as everything is either Confederacy or enemy, but the humans insisted. The acronyms expand to Confederacy Navy Ship, Confederacy Auxiliary Ship, and Confederacy Merchant Ship respectively. Fleet ships with offensive armament are CNS, if they only have defensive armament they are CAS, and completely unarmed fleet cargo carriers or working ships will be CMS. CNS includes those ships with non-traditional armaments, like troopships with landing shuttles and carriers with bombers, which may or may not also carry integral weapon systems. Privately controlled ships like the Darjee traders will be "SS" for SpaceShip with no flag obligations.

Concubine - A Human without the minimum CAP score to volunteer for Confederacy service, but who has been allowed to go anyway in return for obedience to a specific volunteer (see entry). The Concubine gets off a dying planet and the volunteer gets a servant or slave. Some concubines are selected for their known past performance (taking a wife or husband is common); some are selected for their current appearance (taking the prettiest woman available is common). Depending upon the specific patron, a concubine may find him or herself a pampered pet, a trusted helper, or an abused sex slave. Often informally abbreviated to "conk".

DC - Damage Control - An Engineering control station with responsibility for life support functions (atmosphere, gravity control, etc). On smaller ships this is just a station in the ECR. On larger ships it is a separate space which also serves as a backup to the ECR.

ECR - Engineering Control Room - The control room for all the bits that actually make the ship go: Main Engines, Power Generation, etc. While the ECR is often inside one of the main engineering spaces, it is always completely enclosed and isolated so that an environmental issue (no air, etc) in the space does not directly affect the ECR.

EmCon - Emissions Control - Look, there just isn't a cloaking device. All we can do is shut down all the radars and other emitters, turn the shields off since they radiate like a star whenever something hits them (like the molecular dust you find everywhere in a system), let the engines cool off until they no longer radiate heat, and pretend to be a boring empty volume of space. There are various levels of this, from partial to full. Patrol EmCon has shields turned off and engines as cool as we can make them while still move. Ex-Submariners want to stay at Patrol EmCom all the time. Ex-surface ship sailors don't like running with no shields.

HEZ - Hyperspace Exclusion Zone - That volume surrounding a gravity well where a Category III FTL drive will not work. Forcing one to try to work inside an HEZ leads to Bad Things happening to everything inside the drive field. To avoid this, the Confederacy has developed mass-sensors that allow navigation in hyperspace, but they involve so much computation that only an AI can do it in realtime. The Sa'arm use much the same drive system as the Confederacy, but lacking AIs they can only use the drive for pre-calculated jumps with no navigation.

HPAB, MPAB, LPAB - Heavy, Medium, and Light Particle Accelerator Beam, the most effective of the weapons our inherited ships came with. Fairly quick to fire with almost light-speed effect, but not destructive enough to destroy an enemy without multiple hits. To help ensure multiple hits, they are often set in twin turrets that can either fire together for maximum effect on a shield, or offset by a fraction of a second to allow one to penetrate armor and the other to damage whatever is behind the armor that just got penetrated. Lighter ships can only carry individual guns.

IFF - An electronic system to Identify Friend or Foe. Basically an enhanced aircraft transponder. When a traffic control radar sweeps across a jumbo jet, the jet's transponder sends out a coded reply pulse that contains useful info (altitude, speed, heading, current label "Delta flight 317", whatever). A dumb radar will just display its own return echo, letting the operator know there is a plane out there. A transponder-aware smart radar system will decode the transponder's pulse and also display the aircraft's altitude, ID code, etc.

A military IFF system includes an encrypted signal that (hopefully) an enemy cannot spoof, so you know whether the blip is a friend or a foe. The weapons guys insist that their homing missiles ignore a ship with a valid IFF code, but no sane person would actually trust that; what if the missile is loaded with yesterday's codes? Any warship will immediately target any missile that appears to be headed towards them. An IFF system can also be used in "active" or commanded mode, where it sends out an "I'm a good guy" pulse without waiting to be poked by a search radar or scanner. This allows receivers that recognize the pulse to localize the sending ship even if the ship itself cannot be detected yet.

Liferaft - A minimal boat or shuttle carried by ships that are too small to carry a reasonable-sized ship's boat, or in addition to the normal ship's boats. The ones carried by the Castles and Patricians have four inflatable bubble "bedrooms" that can each sleep 20 adults, although the environment plant is only rated for 60 adults for 2 months. Even if one is found with no survivors, it should be recovered because CIC provides all liferafts and shuttles with a continuous tactical download until launch. This will tell the recovering ship what happened to the launching ship, and thus where else it should look for survivors.

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