The War After Armageddon

GAB: “Get-Ashore Boats.” Hastily designed and built landing craft deployed in five variants, from a small Number One GAB that carries a reinforced platoon to a Number Five GAB that can land multiple armored vehicles or large quantities of supplies. Number Four and Number Five GABs can extend their own tactical docking facilities to cover a to-the-beach distance of up to thirty-five meters. A U.S. Marine Corps initiative, but crewed by U.S. Navy personnel.

GHOST NETTING: Breakthrough-technology camouflage netting that, once connected to its portable power supply, automatically reads and blends in with the local environment.

GPS: Global Positioning System. Before this war, it has been effectively jammed, with numerous key satellites physically destroyed. Weapons systems reliant upon GPS for guidance or locational data no longer work.

GUARDIANS: Personal bodyguards and support personnel devoted to the MOBIC commander they serve.

H

HE ROUND: High-explosive round for a tank, artillery piece, or mortar.

HHC: Headquarters Company in a battalion, to which all the unit’s noncombat resources are assigned. Affectionately known to combat troops as “Hindquarters Company.”

HOLCOM: Holy Land Command. Nicknamed “Hokum” by the troops.

HUMINT: Human Intelligence. Information gathered by or from human sources. Of uneven reliability and dependent upon the quality of the source or observer, but often more helpful than data collected through technical means.

HUNTER ATGM: Antitank guided missile system, usually deployed along with the longer-range Explorer ATGM. Maximum effective range of six kilometers, with target identification and lock-on at six and half kilometers. After launch, ignores all additional commands. Can operate robotically, without human control. Built internationally from pirated designs.

HYPERJAMMERS: Late-generation jammers that can wipe out all communications in a sector and, in some cases, physically destroy electronic circuits.

I

IDF: Israeli Defense Force, the military forces of the former state of Israel.

IEF: Israeli Exile Force, the successor to the IDF after the Iranian-launched nuclear holocaust and subsequent Arab conquest of Israel.

K

KILLER DRONE: Also known as a “kamikaze drone” by the troops. A small UAV programmed to seek out targets with specific profiles and crash into them, detonating either a penetrating or high-explosive warhead. Can loiter for hours over the battlefield until a target is detected.

L

LOC: Line of communication. Military parlance for a road, rail link, or sea route, or a complex of such routes.

LONG-DISTANCE KINETIC-ENERGY ROUND: “Lima-Delta,” a tank round designed to destroy other armored vehicles or similar targets.

LOOPHOLE AT (ANTITANK) TECHNOLOGY: Sophisticated programs that allow late-generation antitank missiles to immediately identify gaps in the electronic defenses of an enemy. In wide use in this war.

M

MA DEUCE: An M-2.50 caliber heavy machine gun.

MOBIC: The Military Order of the Brothers in Christ. A crusading American military or ga ni za tion originally founded on the structure of the National Guard in the wake of the nuclear destruction by terrorists of Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Its leaders are determined that the MOBIC will become the sole military service of the United States.

MORPHING PARASITE: A program that can enter an electronic network and simulate any aspect of its control mechanisms to achieve an attacker’s desired ends. Cutting-edge versions can be broadcast at an enemy but can penetrate only systems with a gap or weakness in their shielding.

MR. NO-SHOULDERS: A snake.

MUSSIE-BABBLE: Arabic.

N

NEXGEN ARMORED VEHICLES: Later offshoots of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems program. Heavily reliant upon electronic defenses, they prove a disappointment in the field, far more vulnerable than older combat vehicles, such as the M-1 tank, with heavier armor.

O

0–5: A lieutenant col o nel.

0–6: A full “bird” colonel.

OPCON: Operational Control. A unit that is OPCON to a headquarters is under the headquarters’ control only for a specific mission, purpose, or time frame; essentially, it’s on loan.

P

PHASE LINE: A military control measure; a line drawn on a map, usually associated with readily identifiable terrain features, that helps a commander regulate a combat action. Similar in purpose to the yard lines on a football field.

POL: Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants. Military-speak for fuel.

POW: Prisoner of war.

PROVIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES: Camps constructed for Muslim-Americans after the nuclear terror attacks on Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

R

RUMINT: “Rumor intelligence.” Slang for military gossip about a current or anticipated situation.

S