Grunt Traitor (44 page)
Mr. Pink:
Recruiter for the OMBRA corporation and commander of OMBRA Special Operations Command North America. Originally a nickname given by Ben Mason because of the man’s resemblance to the actor Steve Buscemi, the name has stuck and is what Mr. Wilson uses instead of his own name.
MRE:
Meals, Ready-to-Eat, boxed and bagged rations used to feed troops in the field.
NAP:
High-speed low altitude air travel following the contours of the Earth. Also called Nap of the Earth or NOE.
needler:
Alien variant which protects and pollinates the flowers on the black alien vine.
net:
A network of communication devices.
NTC:
National Training Center at Fort Irwin, the location where American military forces trained brigade on brigade combat operations.
NVD or Nods:
Night Vision Devices.
OMBRA:
Largest world-wide defense contractor before the alien invasion.
OPFOR:
OPposing FORces.
Ophiocordycipitaceae
:
A family of parasitic fungi in the
Ascomycota
, class
Sordariomycetes
.
overwatch:
Units or elements of unit supporting each other during fire and maneuver.
P226:
Semi-automatic pistol which fires 9mm ammunition.
P238:
Very small semi-automatic pistol which fires 9mm ammunition or .45 ACP.
prick-77:
AN/PRC-77 Portable Transceiver,a man-packable, portable VHF FM combat-net radio transceiver used to provide short-range, two-way radiotelephone voice communication. Capable of communications operations up to thirty miles with booster.
PTSD:
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
QRF:
Quick Reaction Force.
recon:
Reconnaissance.
RPG:
A class of weapon using rocket propelled grenades.
Sirens:
Alien variant which uses human brain-waves to establish alien to alien communication.
SNAFU:
Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.
SOCOM:
Special Operations COMmand.
spikers:
Alien variant, usually in animals, with spikey ascocarps protruding from the skin.
UAV:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
VUAA1:
Vanderbilt University Allosteric Agonist Number One, a pesticide which renders the user invisible to certain species of insects and needlers because it causes sensory overload
W54:
Manufactured in the United States in 1961, these were the smallest man-packable nuclear weapons devised.
WWWSD:
What Would William Shatner Do?
xenobotany:
The scientific study of extraterrestrial plants.
XM214:
A weapons system mounted on the EXO with a six-barreled rotating minigun fed from a backpack ammo supply through an ammo feed arm with 1500 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition.
THE INVASION IS OVER. THEY ARE ALREADY AMONGST US.
Benjamin Carter Mason died last night. Maybe he threw himself off a bridge into Los Angeles Harbor, or maybe he burned to death in a house fire in San Pedro; it doesn’t really matter. Today, Mason’s starting a new life. He’s back in boot camp, training for the only war left that matters a damn.
For years, their spies have been coming to Earth, learning our weaknesses. Our governments knew, but they did nothing—the prospect was too awful, the costs too high—and now, the horrifying and utterly inhuman Cray are laying waste to our cities. The human race is a heartbeat away from extinction. That is, unless Mason, and the other men and women of Task Force OMBRA, can do anything about it.
This is a time for heroes. For killers. For Grunts.
‘Weston Ochse writes hard-nosed fiction with more grit and imagination than most authors could ever hope to muster. When he turns his skills to tales of the military, the words sing with the truth of personal experience.’
Christopher Golden, #1
New York Times
bestselling author of
Snowblind
‘
SEAL Team 666
is like
X-Files
and
Torchwood
written by Tom Clancy: ingenious, creepy, and entertaining.’
Kevin J. Anderson on
Seal Team 666
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