Operational Concerns

Guide To Military Slang

Aurabesh Soup: Imperial TIE pilot term for Rebel starfighters.
Bantha: Derogatory tank crew term for an AT-AT.
Bantha Rider: Derogatory tanker term for an AT-AT crew.
Breakfast: Rebel term for a TIE element; two TIE fighters.
Ceiling: Planetary shield coverage (tankers appreciate the Ceiling).
Clutch: Rebel term for a TIE flight.
Crosses: Imperial TIE pilot term for X-wings.
Dead Men: Infantry term for armored vehicle crew.
Dupes: Rebel term for TIE bombers, from the double pod configuration.
Edges: Imperial TIE pilot term for A-wings.
Eggs, Eggshells: Rebel term for TIEs, from their fragility and cockpit shape.
Egg Basket: Rebel term for a TIE wing.
Egglayers: Originally a Rebel term for TIE/gts, now TIE bombers.
Emperor's Dozen: Rebel term for a TIE squadron.
Eyeballs: Rebel term for TIE starfighters of any kind, especially the TIE/ln, from the main pod shape.
Fanboys: General term for hovercraft crew.
Field Thorns: Mines (also called "burrs").
Fire Magnet: Infantry term for any armored vehicle, but especially repulsortanks. Most infantry are uneasy around tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Groundhogs: Imperial TIE pilot term for ground-based TIE pilots (derogatory).
Knocking on the Roof: Orbital bombardment on planetary shielding (something tankers worry about).
Lightfoot: Armor term for infantry attached to repulsortank units.
Long Arm of the Empire: Artillery fire.
Motherbird: Rebel term for a ship carrying TIEs.
Mudfoot: Armor crew term for infantry attached to walker units.
Nest: Rebel term for a TIE ground base, generally a garrison.
Peepers: Rebel term for TIE/rc starfighters.
Piles: Imperial TIE pilot term for Y-wings.
Puck: Walker crew term for a repulsortank.
Puck-Heads: Walker crew reference to repulsortank crew.
Rocket Riders: Speeder bike (or repulsor sled)-mounted scouts, especially scout troopers.
Sharps: Rebel term for TIE/fc starfighters.
Slap: An artillery barrage. A "light" slap is a light barrage, a "hard" slap is a heavy barrage. Artillery crews have numerous other terms in the same vein.
Spinners: Imperial TIE pilot term for B-wings.
Squints: Rebel term for TIE interceptors, from the streamlined bent-wing configuration.
Stand-Back: General term for an artillery crew (derogatory).
Starbirds in the Rafters: Starfighters in the planetary shield coverage (something tankers dread).
Target: Starfighter pilot's and orbital gunner's term for any armored vehicle. A heavy tank is considered a "slow target," an AT-AT is a "slow easy target," and a speeder or light tank is a "fast target."
Target: Imperial TIE pilot term for any ground target. TIE pilots make little distinction between vehicles, tanks, infantry units, or buildings.
Tiny Tanks: Tanker term for stormtroopers.
Treadfoot: Armor term for infantry in general.
Vac-heads: Armor and Infantry term for Naval crewmen (derogatory).
Vac-heads: Imperial ground-based Tie pilot term for Space-based TIE pilots (derogatory).
Wannabies: Repulsor-crew term for hovercraft.
White Armor: Armor crew term for stormtroopers.

Transponder Codes

Transponder codes are etched into the power plant of every ship manufactured in known space. Every code is unique and all codes are recorded and maintained by an immense and ancient bureaucracy called the Bureau of Ship's Services (BoSS, which also rates ports, issues travel advisories, and otherwise provides ships services to all subscribers). Most military ships, and virtually all patrol ships have an automatic interrogation response circuit, and a simple sensor sweep provides the identity of a passing vessel. Although most civilian ships do not randomly broadcast their identity to anyone who happens to be listening, such traffic can be identified by matching transponder codes to BoSS records.

Every starport (probably not fringe or shadow ports) records the transponder codes of ship traffic for use by law enforcement tracking. These starports also receive regular updates on known criminal ships (also listed by transponder code), not the ship's registry name. Star Destroyers and other Navy command ships commonly carry a transponder code listing for vast territories in memory; Sector Ranger and Customs ships generally carry a single sector's listings. In practice, however, ships can evade detection through several means: moving to other locations that haven't added the transponder code to their wanted list, switching ships, replacing engines, avoiding legal ports or by transponder code alteration.

Jump Zones

A jump zone is a set of coordinates used to safely arrive and depart a system. These zones are kept clear of debris by local system patrols, and visited as briefly as possible to reduce the risk of a collision with other incoming ships.

Systems with high traffic have differentiated jump zones for commercial, military, super-container, private, and corporate ships. Very few ships arrive elsewhere; to do so is too dangerous for most captains to risk.

While it is possible to jump to any position in a system -- as close as planetary orbit -- only military and illegal vessels do so, and even then it is fantastically dangerous. Regular commercial and private ships file flight plans to maximize the odds or arriving safely in their assigned jump zone.

The transit from zone to orbit can be anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours, depending on local charts, traffic, Imperial Survey Corps updates, era of colonization, and other factors. A short zone might be as little as 50 spacial units from orbit, while a long zone may be up to 200 or even 2,000 or more units distant. Coruscant, for example, has jump zones laid out as far away as four days travel from orbit.

Sublight Speeds

Starships cover thousands of kilometers per second in open space. While they are moving much more slowly when orbiting planets and maneuvering through asteroid fields, their speeds are still incredible.

Rather than using these huge numbers for movement, the game uses "Space Units" to represent ship speeds and weapon ranges. The ships always move at the same proportional speeds.

Planetary Assault

Below is an except from a guest speaker, Admiral Unther, during a lecture on planetary assault for a class in Fleet Tactics at the Duluur Sector Naval Academy sometime after the Battle of Hoth.

"During approach, there are several things to consider. Your first decision concerns how close to your target planet you will exit hyperspace. Exiting very close allows you to surprise your enemy, but your fleet may not be fully prepared for battle for an hour or more while you deploy and maneuver. Emerging far from an enemy planet gives the enemy time to notice your approach through the system, but you can carefully reconnoiter the system before entering with little fear of detection.

"This decision was the first mistake to be made at the Battle of Hoth. You all received your briefing on that a few weeks ago? Good. I believe that battle serves as a textbook case of the perils and pitfalls of a planetary assault.

"Admiral Ozzel, believing the Rebels were unprepared to evacuate, felt that surprise would throw the Rebels into confusion. He brought the fleet out of hyperspace too close within the Hoth system. However, the Rebels were prepared with a planetary shield and significant hardware to resist an attack. This prevented recon units from scouting the system and careful deployment of the fleet. To prevent any Rebels from escaping, the fleet was forced to maneuver quickly and without proper planning.

"When approaching your target choose your route carefully. Asteroid fields and gas giants are hiding places for enemy ships or even whole fleets. These danger areas should be carefully scanned and, if scans prove inconclusive, they should be lightly guarded throughout the entire operation. Even a few fighters can do significant damage to vulnerable ships kept in rear areas. Choose your route carefully -- you can expect a planet to mobilize every ship available in its own defense and you need to make maximum use of planets and other objects to aid you in any battle.

"Remember, fighting a naval battle with a defending fleet will be different from fighting a pitched battle in space. The enemy will almost certainly target troop transports and logistics ships. Ordinarily, Star Destroyers will be the first targets because of their firepower and command coordination capabilities. Make certain you protect your supply ships and transports if you expect to lay siege to the planet. Sieges take time, and time requires supplies. If you cannot repair your ships, or supply them with the thousand things they need to work, your siege will be short."

[Adventure Journal 2, page 256]

Battle Line Maneuvers

The Long Engagement Zone: Long range for the most powerful weapons in the fleet. At this range, the fleet concentrates its fire against the more fragile escort vessels in the hopes of eliminating the enemy combat support vessels.

The Kill Zone: At this range, the majority of capital ship weapons can be brought to bear, but the enemy fleet is still too distant for the lighter starfighter weapons -- they must actively close on the enemy fleet to be effective.

The Secondary Zone: At this range, the enemy's smaller craft begin to be a threat. The cruisers must decide whether to switch targets and deal with the annoying smaller craft, or continue to concentrate upon their primary targets, the other cruisers, and risk one of the smaller craft getting off a lucky shot.

The Primary Zone: If they reach the primary zone, smaller craft -- particularly starfighters -- have a distinct advantage against the cruisers. They can use their superior mobility and speed to avoid cruisers' weaponry, and they can pinpoint their fire against the cruiser's vulnerable points.

It is an interesting fact that, though space is, of course, three-dimensional, with a vessel's orientation of no particular importance, Humans find it distinctly unsettling to view a ship which appears to be upside down or which appears to be "hanging over" their vessel. To counteract this, fleets almost always orient their vessels so that "down" is the in the same direction for all craft. Tradition has it that the approaching vessel orients itself to match the vessel already in position.

This psychological quirk makes capital starship combat surprisingly similar to water-based ship combat. It might be noted that, if a species were fully comfortable with the three-dimensional nature of space, they would be at a distinct advantage when fighting Humans in space.

The Exchange: The exchange is the simplest of all battle line maneuvers. The opponents sweep past each other, exchanging broadsides as they go. The starships with the strongest shields and hulls and best weaponry will generally come off the best in an exchange.

Capping the "T": This is a most effective maneuver in which the battle line crosses the front of the enemy's battle line. All of the cruisers concentrate their fire upon the lead enemy cruiser, quite probably damaging it severely, while two of the enemy's cruisers get no shots back at all, or at best, shots at long range.

The Ackbar Slash: This is a very daring attack in which the battle line drives directly through the heart of the enemy's formation, and one uniquely suited for the design of Alliance vessels. Each ship blasts at the ships to their right and left as they pass, again quite possibly damaging them severely, while the enemy's ships on the outer edges of the battle line get no or very poor shots in return.

The Brawl: This is a desperation maneuver, employed when one side is terribly outgunned or has little reason to expect to win. The lines rush at each other, and the battle breaks up into many separate fights. Ships may collide, or two or three vessels may gang up on one. In a dogfight between these colossal ships, anything can happen. Basically, a brawl is won by the luckier admiral.

The Fake: In this attack, the attacker pretends to be coming in for a brawl, hoping to drive his opponent out of formation. However, at the last second, his vessels heel over hard and form into line, blasting the enemy with a running broadside.

If the enemy captain keeps his nerve and maintains his formation, he has the opportunity to wheel his ships in behind the attackers after they pass and pound the last ship. If he is fooled into thinking the attackers are brawling and breaks his formation to evade, he's in trouble.

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