Space Jargon

There was a time, when Terran Federation ruled over the entire Mankind. It was also a time when jargon describing the space (and ship to ship combat) began. Many of the words created (or recycled) back then remains common to this day.

Vocabulary

Equipment and Technology

Thermal Flare - A thermal discharge (also called Thermal Flash) caused by a ship emerging from the Hyperspace. It is much, much warmer than space (especially on the fringes of the star systems), meaning that any ship returning to Realspace has a lot of heat to disperse. Not only its hull is heated to few hundred celsius degree on average, it also causes the heat from the Hyperspace to 'leak' from it for a while in the immediate surroundings.
Because of that, the phrase "Thermal Flare detected!" is often the first indication of troubles. It has a sideeffect of blinding thermal sensors of the coming ships for a few minutes, which however rarely matters on a tactical scale but it gives locals (even if for some reason the coming units accidentally jumped out of Hyperspace right at them) time to prepare.
Alcubierre's Wave - A side effect of Alcubierre's Drive shuting down and ships emerging from it. In short - a powerful discharge of particles grabbed by the space bubble that now disperses. It can be weaponized, though it's next to impossible to be guided since ships inside the bubble barely see anything outside of it.
Normally it is simply an indication of ships using Alcubierre's Drive/Engine decelerating back into STL speed, somewhere near your position.
Tachion Wave - While tachions (particles existing only in FTL speed) were scientifically proven to not exist (the fact that some supertechs seem to use them never ceases to boggles minds), their name was applied to something else. Tachion wave happens when ship using Subspace Drive is returning to Reality. This causes a lot of particles and radiation to be projected in all directions, still in FTL speed even if they rapidly decelerate.
It can be detected and work as advanced warning that ship emerged from subspace somewhere near, one that in most cases comes few seconds before artillery rounds.

Space Battles

Events

Crossing the T - Phrase that once meant the situation when a ship (on the sea) managed to cross the enemy formation in the way that allowed to fire its broadside salvo into the enemy beak, with the enemy essentially unable to retaliate. Today it means an extremely rare situation when one ship manages to fire upon one another, hitting the side of the ship (for example a keel) that has no heavy weaponry installed.
It happens only in unlikely situations such as one ship/fleet about to leave the system only for their enemies suddenly emerging from Hyperspace directly beneath them. Or, slightly more often, in Hyperspace. When it does happen, it in most cases means utter annihilation of the attacked side or at least heavily one sided combat.
Headbutt - When one says that one fleet/ship headbutted another, it means that it managed to sneak very close while in Hyperspace and then fired a salvo against it from close distance, with enemy not even knowing the exact position of the attacker. Rare and, frankly, in most cases lethal event.

Battle Plans

At the time of the first Terran Federation, each 'typical' type of the space combat was assigned a name. This was mostly used at the default names of the battle plans belonging to one of the categories in the ship computer systems (tactical simulators were commonly used to plan engagements beforehand). They are often used names for the battle plans when one isn't in the mood of figuring out different names, or as a slang for such types of battles.
Thermopylae - "Thermopylae Battle Plan" or "Thermopylae Firing Solution" means going for a knife-range and using short range weapons in a hope of causing maximum damage especially to enemies that outnumber you or has a significant advantage in missile weapons. Needless to say, it is pretty radical approach to warfare that tends to cause mutual annihilations.
Longbow - "Longbow Battle Plan" or "Longbow Firing Solution" means going for an artillery duel. It is the typical outcome of a battle, since it means that there is a significant change of causing a lot of damage to enemies, but without risking getting wiped out.
Trebuchet - "Trebuchet Battle Plan" or "Trebuchet Firing Solution" means going for a missile duel, without intention for getting closer than that. It is the most cautious and conservative approach, since the chances to cause a lot of damage are normally rather small. In short, it is a good idea for buying time or doing skirmishes.
Armageddon - "Armageddon Battle Plan" or "Armageddon Firing Solution" means that the central point of the tactics is using the Weapon of Mass Destruction, with everything aside that done to buy time for loading the weapon and making sure that enemy is a perfect position to suffer massive casualties.

Defense Plans

Just as in case of the Battle Plans, typical approaches to defending your ship have their own codenames that quite early entered a military jargon.

Berserk - Berserk defense means next to no defenses aside from shields at all. Ships 'going berserk' use all of their weapon systems to cause maximum damage possible, which includes next to no defensive warheads and artillery used only to engage enemy. Used when one side is in hurry, and the other is outgunned... which means that it happens rarely.
Bulwark - Your general approach to defense, more or less balanced. 90% of battles occur with both sides using Bulwark defense plans, the rest happening in weird circumstances and often being an effect of one side major screw-up. Bulwark is a flexible setting, with its user changing the exact composition of their salvoes during the battle.
Tortoise - Tortoise defense means getting into full defense. Everything that can be used to defend the ship will be used to defend it, even at the cost of offensive abilities. And example might be main artillery energy weapons used to shot down missiles and voidcrafts (despite it being noneconomical), missile salvoes composed mostly of defensive missiles etc. etc. Used especially when one side wishes to escape from the battle.

Orbital Bombardment

Poking - "Poking" in a military jargon of most of the Mankind (even if most navies translated it into their own language) is using a weapons for precise planetary bombardment, done against military targets nd rather picky at that. It is the most humanitarian way of bombarding planets, often used to support allied troops on the ground.
Cauterizing - "Cauterizing" a planet means using ship weaponry to orbital bombard it in hope of stopping some quickly expanding threat mostly of non-sapient nature. An example might be fallen, Shoggoth Missile, gray goo scenario etc.
Cleansing - Cleansing a planet means going pretty much all out in the orbital bombardment, targeting civilian and military targets alike, but without damaging habitability. Absolutely forbidden by the Outer Colonies, but even Terran Federation more or less adheres to this rule.
Exterminating - "Exterminating" a planet means destroying it completely, while also destroying its ability to sustain life (if it had it) or ability to get terraformed. In most cases an effect of worldkiller type Weapon of Mass Destruction, allowed to be used only in few cases.