Brothers in Valor (Man of War Book 3)

by H. Paul Honsinger

  back room: See SSR.

  battlecruiser: A large, powerful warship carrying offensive weaponry of the size and power of a battleship, but intermediate in size between cruisers and battleships. Typically massing between 40,000 and 60,000 tons, battlecruisers possess shielding, armor, speed, maneuverability, and defensive capabilities more equivalent to those of a cruiser than a battleship. Naval officers are split on the utility of this type, with some believing that, with the killing power of a battleship and the speed of a cruiser, it offers the best of both; others believing that its large guns make it as tempting a target for the enemy as a battleship, but lacking in the armor, shielding, and point-defense capabilities of a battleship to defend itself, thereby combining the worst of both. A battlecruiser is generally under the command of a full captain.

  battleship: The largest and most powerful type of weapons platform ship (carriers are larger and, with their fighter groups, arguably more powerful, but do not mount heavy offensive weapons). Typically massing 60,000 tons and up, battleships mount large batteries of the most powerful offensive weapons carried on starships and are equipped with the heaviest armor and defensive shielding. The firepower and toughness of a battleship rival those of a battle station. While capable of fairly high sublight speeds, they are very difficult to maneuver. In addition, their enormous bulk means that under compression drive, they are limited to fairly low c multiples. Accordingly, battleships cross interstellar space almost exclusively by jumping. A battleship is typically under the command of a full captain or a commodore.

  battle star: An award conferred by a fleet or task force commander upon a vessel that has comported itself honorably in direct combat with the enemy. In the days of the Saltwater Navy, vessels displayed their battle stars on the hull or superstructure, where other vessels could see them. Union warships display their battle stars by the use of colored running lights on their hull, arranged in the shape of a star and illuminated when they are not stealthed. Battle stars come in three grades: bronze (orange lights), silver (white lights), and gold (yellow lights). The battle star is a permanent award displayed by the vessel as long as it remains in service. Not to be confused with a battlestar, which is an archaic name for a former type that was essentially a cross between a battlecruiser and an escort carrier, mounting heavy pulse-cannon and missiles while also carrying fighters. This type fell into disfavor because of the difficulty in conducting fighter operations while firing guns and missiles through the fighter formations.

  bearing: The position of an object relative to another object, measured as degrees of angle on a horizontal and a vertical plane with the two numbers separated by a slash, which is pronounced as “mark” when giving a bearing out loud. The zero reference in both planes is the geometric center of the Milky Way galaxy. Hence, a Sensor officer will say that a contact is at bearing two-three-seven mark zero-four-five. Also, a sphere, usually made of some hard metal alloy, used in conjunction with several similar spheres to provide lubrication between a rotating shaft and its housing (ball bearings).

  boarding cutlass: A sword made of high-tensile-strength steel, in fashion similar to the United States Navy’s Model 1917 Cutlass. It is 63.5 centimeters long (25 inches) and weighs approximately 935 grams (33 ounces), slightly curved, and primarily regarded as a slashing weapon, but can be used as a thrusting weapon as well. Carried by naval personnel for close order battle in confined quarters on a ship, particularly in locations where gunfire might puncture pipes or pressure vessels, releasing toxic or radioactive substances, or might cause the venting of atmosphere into space. A boarding cutlass and a sidearm of his choice (either an M-1911 or an M-62) is issued to a midshipman when he is promoted to Midshipman First Class.

  Boudreaux and Thibodeaux: The more common name for the Etienne V. Boudreaux and John G. Thibodeaux Advanced Aerospace Group of Nouvelle Acadiana, S.A., a specialty spacecraft design and construction firm known for developing and building cutting-edge warships for the Union Space Navy. Approximately 15 percent of current Union warship designs come from the virtual drafting tables and shipyards of Boudreaux and Thibodeaux. B & T is the only design firm in the Union with authority from the Admiralty—for the duration of the present war—to spend naval funds to undertake new warship designs on its own initiative up through the preliminary design phase, as no design from the firm has ever failed to be accepted by the navy, at least for construction of a prototype.

  Bravo: The second letter of the Union Forces Radio Alphabet (see); a colloquial name for Epsilon Indi III (see).

  BuDes (pronounced “Bew dess”): Bureau of Design. The naval office responsible for designing warships and warship power plants. Its most important component offices are: OfSpaF (pronounced “off spaf”), Office of Space Frames, which is responsible for designing the hulls and the interior support structure that gives them strength and rigidity; OfPropSys (pronounced “off prop sis”), Office of Propulsion Systems, which is responsible for designing the engines and drives; OfHab (pronounced “off hab”), Office of Habitability, which is responsible for designing the interiors of the ships, including location and arrangements of compartments and furnishings; and OfSupSys (“pronounced “off soup sys”) Office of Support Systems, which is responsible for designing the life support, plumbing, and similar systems necessary for sustaining life in space. Weapons, sensors, navigation systems, communications systems, and building of the ships after they are designed are all supervised by separate bureaus.

  BuPers (pronounced “bew perz”): Bureau of Personnel. The naval department responsible for managing naval personnel assignments, recruiting, and similar matters.

  butterbars: The dress uniform insignia of a naval ensign, consisting of a single brass bar, so-called because the brass is yellow like butter; term may also refer by extension to any naval ensign.

  c: The speed of light in a vacuum, commonly stated as “lightspeed,” 299,792,458 meters per second or 186,282 miles per second. Unless a warship is traveling very slowly (in which case, its velocity is given as meters per second), its speed is generally given as a fraction or multiple of c, e.g., .25 c for one quarter of lightspeed or 325 c for 325 times lightspeed. In common usage, sometimes only the number is given. Hence, a tactical officer might inform his captain that a “bogie is approaching at point 25,” or an engineer might advise that the ship “should not exceed 250.”

  Ca c’est bon (Cajun French): That’s good. Equivalent to C’est bon in Parisian French.

  Cajun: A person descended from the French-speaking Roman Catholic residents of Nova Scotia (which they called Acadia) who were exiled by the British at the end of the French and Indian War because of concerns regarding their loyalty to the British crown and who settled in what was then the French territory of Louisiana. Most Cajuns spoke their own version of French well into the twentieth century and maintain a distinctive culture to this day. On Earth, Cajuns mostly reside in the parishes of South-Central and Southwest Louisiana, centered on Lafayette. The largest population of twenty-fourth-century Cajuns, however, may be found on planet Nouvelle Acadiana (Hyukutaki-Matshushita IV), colonized by a mostly Cajun expedition in the early twenty-second century. Cajuns are often referred to by each other and by their friends as “Coonasses.” The word Cajun is a worn-down form of “Acadian.”

  carrier: A large vessel designed to launch, retrieve, arm, fuel, and service fighters and other smaller ships. Large fleet and command carriers can carry as many as two hundred fighters, while smaller escort and attack carriers as few as thirty. Carriers range in size from 40,000 to 1,000,000 tons. As of January through March 2315, there were rumors that the navy was currently constructing a new class of carriers massing 2,000,000 tons, with one being built at the Luna Fleet Yards, one being built at Alphacen, and two at 40 Eridani A. These vessels are supposedly to be known as the Churchill Class.

  C’est pas rien (Cajun French): It’s nothing, think nothing of it. Equivalent to De rien in Parisian French.

  C’est tout (Cajun Fren
ch): That is all.

  Chara (Hebrew): Shit.

  Cherenkov-Heaviside radiation: The burst of radiation emitted as an object emerges from a jump (see). So-named for its two components: Cherenkov radiation, which is the radiation emitted when a charged particle passes through a dielectric medium at a speed higher than the normal speed for the propagation of light in that medium; and Heaviside radiation, the radiation emitted when a particle traveling faster than the speed of light in a spacial regime in which that can occur (e.g., in n-space) is decelerated to subluminal velocities in our own spacial regime.

  Chief of the Boat: The senior noncommissioned officer on board any naval vessel. He is considered a department head and is the liaison between the captain and the noncommissioned ranks. Sometimes referred to as COB (pronounced “cob”) and informally known as the “Goat.”

  CIC: Combat Information Center. The compartment on a warship from which the ship’s operations are controlled, analogous to the “bridge” on an old seagoing vessel before the functions of that space were split between the Bridge and CIC with the introduction of radar to combat ships in the years leading up to World War II.

  CIG: Change in grade. Promotion or demotion. Official orders will never state that a person is “promoted to commander.” Rather, they will say that the person is “CIG to commander.” A CIG order always states the date, hour, and minute the CIG becomes effective, so that there is no question of the relative seniority (and, therefore, who gives orders to whom) of two officers of the same grade.

  Clarke orbit: Synchronous or stationary orbit. An orbit in which the orbiting body remains stationary relative to a point on the surface of the orbited body on the latter’s equator, also defined as an equatorial orbit in which the orbital period is equal to the rotational period of the orbited body. Known as a “Clarke orbit” because the concept was first described in detail by British science and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in a 1945 article published in Wireless World magazine.

  class: A production series of warships of highly similar or identical design, designated by the name of the first ship of the series. Accordingly, if a series of heavy cruisers is produced from the same design, and the first ship of that design to be produced is the USS Faget (pronounced “fah zhay”), then the vessels of that class are known as Faget class cruisers. Vessels of the same class are usually named after the same thing. For example, Faget class cruisers are all named after influential designers of aircraft, launch vehicles, and space vessels. Hence, the class contains the Faget, Wright, Bleriot, Langley, Kelly Johnson, Von Braun, Korolev, Caldwell Johnson, Northrup, etc.

  class (Krag vessels): The Krag apparently have a class system similar to that of the Union, producing warships of similar design in series. Because Krag vessel names are, however, unknown, difficult to pronounce, or impossible to remember, the navy uses a system of “Reporting Names” for Krag vessel classes. Essentially, when a new class of Krag vessel is identified, a name is assigned to that class by Naval Intelligence. Class names generally start with the same letter or group of letters as the name of the vessel type, with the exception of battlecruisers, the class names of which begin with “Bar” to distinguish them from battleships. In this way a ship’s type can immediately be determined from its class name, even if the name is not familiar. Examples of class names for each major warship type follow:

  Battleships: Batwing, Battalion, Battleaxe, Baton

  Battlecruisers: Barnacle, Barnyard, Barrister, Barsoom, Barmaid

  Carrier: Carousel, Carnivore, Carpetbagger, Cardigan

  Cruiser: Crusader, Crucible, Crustacean, Crumpet, Crayfish

  Frigate: Freelancer, Frogleg, Frycook, Frigid

  Destroyer: Deckhand, Delver, Dervish, Debris, Deputy

  Corvette: Corpuscle, Cormorant, Cornhusker, Corsican, Cordwood

  Cobra’s Nest: A developmental group at Boudreaux and Thibodeaux (see) devoted to designing particularly innovative high-performance warships for the Union Space Navy. Among others, the group was responsible for designing the Drake class battleship, the Boudica class cruiser, the Battleaxe and Khyber class destroyers, and the “Night” type intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance vessels (Nighthawk, Nightshade, and Nightwind classes). The idea of having such a group, as well as the name, were inspired by Lockheed’s “Skunk Works.” Noteworthy Cobra’s Nest designers over the years include John “T-John” Thibodeaux, Polycarp Phillipe Pecoe II (“Number Two”), Clyde “True Blue” LeBleu, and Harvey “Humble Harv” Robichaux.

  Comet: Colloquial term for the Warship Qualification Badge, a medal, shaped like a comet with a curved tail, indicating that the wearer has passed either a Warship Crew Qualification Examination or a Warship Officer Qualification Examination. The decoration shows that the recipient can competently operate every crew or officer station on the ship, perform basic damage control, engage in close order battle with sidearm and boarding cutlass, use a pulse rifle, and fight hand-to-hand. The Comet was created in the early days of space combat to be the equivalent of the “Dolphins” from the United States Submarine Forces.

  compression drive: One of the two known technologies that allow ships to travel faster than lightspeed (the other being the jump drive). The compression drive permits violation of Einsteinian physics by selectively compressing and expanding the fabric of the space-time continuum. The drive creates a bubble of distorted space-time around the vessel with a diameter approximately thirty-four times the length of the ship. This bubble, in turn, contains a smaller bubble of undistorted space-time just large enough to enclose the ship itself. The density of space-time is compressed along the ship’s planned line of travel and expanded behind it (hence, the term “compression drive,” which was thought to sound better than “expansion drive” or, heaven forbid, “warp drive”), creating a propulsive force that moves the ship forward faster than the speed of light as viewed from the perspective of a distant observer. This superluminal motion does not violate Einsteinian physics because the ship is stationary relative to the fabric of space-time inside the bubble and, therefore, from the point of view of an observer located there, does not exceed the speed of light. Because the volume of distorted space rises as a geometric function as ship size goes up under the familiar V = π r2 formula multiplied by 34 (pi times half the length of the ship squared times 34), even a small increase in the ship’s dimensions results in a substantial increase in the energy required to propel it through compressed space. Accordingly, until the recent acquisition of field synchronization algorithms from the Sarthan, only smaller ship types could move at high speeds or for any appreciable distance using compression drive, which means, in turn, that major fleet operations and planetary conquests require the taking and holding of jump points so that carriers, battleships, tankers, and other larger or slower vessels can be brought into the system.

  compression shear: A dangerous phenomenon caused by a compression drive experiencing poor speed regulation, a common occurrence at speeds of less than about 80 c. Compression shear occurs when radical fluctuations in the degree of space-time distortion caused by a poorly regulated drive exert variable and rapidly fluctuating force against the “bubble” of normal space-time surrounding the ship. As the small undistorted bubble around the ship must exist in precise equilibrium with the larger zone of differentially compressed and expanded space that surrounds the smaller one, sharp variations or “shear” along the boundary rupture the bubble and destroy the ship.

  Core Systems: The fifty star systems located near the astrographic center of the Union, which, while constituting only about 10 percent by number of the Union’s inhabited worlds, are home to 42 percent of its population and 67 percent of its heavy industrial capacity.

  cruiser: A large, heavily armed, and heavily armored vessel providing an excellent mix of firepower, armor, speed, and endurance. Cruisers are highly powerful and flexible warships that can operate as component parts of large task forces or as the center of small task forces of their own.
Cruisers are capable of delivering heavy doses of sustained weapons fire against warships, orbital installations, and surface targets, and can operate without support for more than a year. Most cruiser types mass between 25,000 and 40,000 metric tons and are often loosely divided into the subtypes of light, medium, and heavy. A heavy cruiser is only slightly smaller and less powerful than the smaller classes of battlecruiser.

  DC: Damage Control. The set of duties and techniques associated with limiting and repairing damage to a ship sustained in space, particularly battle damage. The term is also used to refer to the CIC station used to display damage to the ship and coordinate the efforts of Damage Control parties as well as to the person who mans that station.

  delta V: Change in velocity. Delta is the physics/aerospace symbol for “change,” and V is the symbol for velocity (velocity technically being both speed and direction). Space-vehicle maneuvers are typically measured in terms of the delta V necessary to carry them out, as that number immediately tells a pilot whether he has enough fuel and thruster power to complete the maneuver.

  destroyer: The most numerous type of rated ship in the navy, destroyers are comparatively small vessels (as measured against cruisers, battleships, and carriers) optimized for speed, maneuverability, and firepower. Known as the “workhorses of the navy,” destroyers typically mass in the 16,000- to 20,000-ton range. They are not heavily armored and are not capable of carrying enough stores, fuel, and munitions to operate for long periods of time without resupply, but carry pulse-cannons equal in power (though usually fewer of them) to those carried by most frigates. Destroyers are typically operated as escorts to larger vessels as part of a fleet or task force. When a destroyer encounters a ship of greater force, it is supposed to either call upon a heavier vessel with which it is operating or, if none is available, rely on its maneuverability and speed to evade and run away (ELEVES or “elude, evade, and escape”). The CO of a destroyer is typically a commander, although ships in the smaller destroyer classes sometimes have an unusually able lieutenant commander as a skipper.