List of terms (RDM)

Part of the series on Battlestar Galactica Terminology

Original Series Separate Continuity and Unproduced Scripts Richard Hatch's Continuation Novels Steampunk Battlestar Galactica 1880 Galactica 1980 Re-imagined Series Separate Continuity (Books, Comics, Video Games, et al.)

This is a listing of acronyms, jargon and terminology used in the Re-imagined Series.

Acronyms

• AAU: Anti-aircraft unit. Weapons used to destroy aerial units (Fragged)
• BSG: A Battlestar Group (Water)
• CAG: Commander Air Group: the senior pilot on a battlestar
• CAP: Combat Air Patrol
• CBDR: Constant Bearing, Decreasing Range. Indicates object on a collision course ("Final Cut", "Pegasus")
• CF: Colonial Fleet (Final Cut)
• CFR: Colonial Fleet Reserve (Final Cut)
• CIC: Combat Information Center, the nerve center or "bridge" of a battlestar
• CMC: Colonial Marine Corps (Final Cut)
• CMCR: Colonial Marine Corps Reserve (Final Cut)
• CMO: Chief Medical Officer
• CNP: Command Navigation Program: Computer operating system on military and civilian ships exploited by the Cylons (Miniseries, Night 1)
• CO: Commanding Officer
• DC: Damage Control, generally related to the CIC station and related locations
• DCT: Damage Control Team; typically consisting of deckhands and other NCOs (Miniseries, Night 1)
• DRADIS: "Direction, Range, and Distance". Colonial equivalent of radar.
• ECO: Electronic Countermeasures Officer
• EMI: Electromagnetic interference. High-energy electromagnetic radiation from binary stars is known to interfere with DRADIS (The Captain's Hand)
• EMP: Electromagnetic pulse. A powerful electrically-disruptive surge that typically accompanies a nuclear detonation
• FTL: Faster Than Light. The term usually describes the engines, not the process, which is known as a "jump"
• IFF: Identification Friend Foe. A system using transponders to identify friendly spacecraft (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II)
• KIA: Killed in Action (Sacrifice)
• LSO: Landing Signal Officer
• OOD: Officer of the Deck (Scattered)
• RFN: Right Frakking Now ("Scattered", "Valley of Darkness")
• SAR: Search and Rescue (Fragged)
• SU: Distance measurement similar to "astronomical unit". Speculated to stand for "solar unit" (The Captain's Hand)
• XO: Executive Officer

Military Jargon

• Actual: the commanding officer. Used in wireless transmissions
• ball: visual indicator used in a battlestar's Instrument Landing System (Miniseries, "Act of Contrition", "Final Cut", "Black Market")
• bandit: confirmed hostile contact. Usually in reference to fighter and shuttle sized craft (Final Cut)
• bingo fuel: having no fuel left or just enough fuel to return to the mothership ("You Can't Go Home Again", "Scar")
• bird farm: Colonial pilot jargon for a battlestar (Final Cut)
• bug out: to abort an attack when the enemy is deemed superior (Valley of Darkness)
• chatter: to fire on an enemy during a fighter engagement (Valley of Darkness), also used as slang for active communications between ships or people
• code blue: an internal security term used by an officer requesting assistance, after said officer identifies a possible Cylon agent ("Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II", Podcast:Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II)
• command authority: the senior person/persons in command of a military unit, such as an Admiral ("Pegasus", "Precipice")
• conn: literally the navigation controls, but also used to refer to command in general (The Captain's Hand)
• "dress and cover": military term for personnel to form an ordered rank-and-file formation during ceremonies. Derived from "dress right" and "cover down" (Pegasus)
• ell-tee: phonetic pronunciation of "Lt.", i.e. Lieutenant. Used as a nickname by junior personnel, but still retaining military protocol and respect. ("Valley of Darkness", "Fragged")
• fire team: a small unit of military personnel, typically Marines or soldiers (Valley of Darkness)
• five-'graph order: five paragraph operation order. A basic command tool taught to officer candidates (Fragged)
• genny: power generator. Tyrol asked Cally to "find the genny" to power up the lights on Ragnar Anchorage (Miniseries)
• jump: The process of using the FTL engines to make an near-instantaneous apparent faster-than-light transport of a ship from one point in space to another
• hack: the brig
• hard deck: the threshold of an imaginary sphere concentric to a significantly massive planet with a significantly dense atmosphere below which the atmospheric density becomes too great for a Viper to reach escape velocity (Maelstrom).
• klick: one kilometer
• knuckle dragger: inoffensive slang for a mechanic or deckhand
• nugget: a pilot in training ("Act of Contrition", "Scar")
• Mark One Eyeball: the unaided eye ("You Can't Go Home Again", "Scar")
• no joy: no success in establishing visual contact with the target. Opposite of "tally". Can also mean no success in general ("The Hand of God", "Maelstrom")
• Old Man: slang for Commander William Adama (33)
• press: directive to continue the attack (Maelstrom)
• recovery line: the point at which it becomes unlikely that a fighter will be able to safely return to base (33)
• rook: "rookie" (Miniseries)
• shooter: slang for launch officer (Miniseries, Night 1)
• Sierra Alpha: "suspicious activity" (Scattered)
• sitrep: "situation report"
• skids up: "take off" or "launch". Often used by the CAG to end a mission briefing.
• skosh (ammo): radio code meaning "out of ammunition", analagous to modern-day NATO brevity code "winchester". Skosh is also a real NATO brevity term meaning "Aircraft is out of or unable to employ active radar missiles" (The Captain's Hand)
• sparrow: slang for a Cylon Raider (Maelstrom)
• spinner: engineering component of a battlestar's FTL drive (The Captain's Hand)
• swallow: decoy drone deployed by Raptors (Miniseries)
• snipe: engineer (The Captain's Hand)
• spooch: Contraction of "screwed the pooch," describing a serious pilot error (Scar)
• tally: the sighting of a target, non-friendly craft, landmark, or enemy position ("The Hand of God", "Scattered", "Maelstrom")
• trap: mechanism in a battlestar's landing bay which arrests the forward motion of either a Viper, Raptor or other small craft (Final Cut)
• Two Alpha: designation for an extremely risky and voluntary mission (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I)
• turkey: slang for a Cylon Heavy Raider (Maelstrom)
• unrep: short for Underway Replenishment. In today's navies, the act of resupplying military vessels at sea, usually from dedicated ships while in motion ("Water", "Maelstrom")
• weapons free: weapon control order indicating weapons systems may be fired at any target not positively recognized as friendly (Resurrection Ship, Part I)
• weapons hot: weapons status indicating that safeties are off and weapons systems are armed (Final Cut)
• wilco: "will comply"

Other Colloquialisms

• The Beast: nickname for Pegasus given by Galactica's crew (The Captain's Hand)
• Big G: nickname for Galactica
• The Bucket: nickname for Galactica given by Pegasus's crew (The Captain's Hand)
• bullet-head: slang for a Cylon Centurion (Downloaded)
• clanker: slang for a Cylon Centurion
• chrome job: slang for a Cylon Centurion (The Resistance)
• companionway: a set of steps leading from a ship's deck down to a cabin or lower deck (Valley of Darkness)
• Download City: a term used by Seelix to describe the unknown or figurative place where humanoid Cylons are resurrected on New Caprica (Exodus, Part I).
• frak: Colonial version of "fuck"
• freight monkey: term for crewmen on Colonial freighters (Scattered, deleted scene)
• hard six: taking large risks; literally, rolling 2 threes with a pair of dice
• Heavy: used to signify a civilian transport vessel over a certain gross weight/mass, i.e. Colonial Heavy 798
• skin job: derogatory term for humanoid Cylons. Homage to the movie Blade Runner (Downloaded)
• stump: derogatory term for a prisoner in a labor camp (Bastille Day)
• toaster: derogatory term for Cylons in general
• toaster shopping: searching and destroying Cylons (Valley of Darkness)
• "Go Panthers!" and "C-Bucs Rule": Used as a passphrase between Sharon Agathon and Samuel Anders respectively (Exodus, Part I)

Battlestar Galactica Specific Terms

• ambrosia: a type of alcoholic beverage
• carom: term used in conjunction with a Dradis Contact read; analogous to the term "mark"
• chamalla: hallucinogenic plant used in religious ceremonies and medical treatments
• cubit: unit of currency
• Dradis: Colonial equivalent of radar. Technically an acronym for "Direction, Range, and Distance"
• fumarella leaf: tobacco or a type of tobacco (Water)
• G-4: a type of explosive similar to modern C-4 (Water)
• JP: a unit of measure for liquid, approximately 1 pint (Water)
• krypter: Colonial version of "mayday". In practice, the term is usually repeated three times (Miniseries, "Hero")
• morpha: Colonial equivalent of morphine ("Valley of Darkness", "Epiphanies")
• Pyramid: popular Colonial ball game
• Red Line: a point in space behind which an accumulative error creeps into FTL jump calculations (Miniseries, "Pegasus (Extended Version)")
• stims: stimulants or a type of stimulants ("33", "Final Cut")
• Triad: card game similar to Poker
• tylium: mineral that can be refined to a powerful fuel
• wireless: Colonial equivalent of radio