- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
A friend and I were having a discussion on the significance of the names of planets in the Halo books. Harvest and Jericho both have 7 letters, so that's something (maybe). So I was trying to figure out something for Sigma Octanus IV.
In the ionic Greek number system, sigma = 200. When I looked up octanus, it doesn't have a meaning of its own, but I did find octal, another way of saying base 8. So I converted 200 to base 8 and got 310. But I couldn't attach any significance to 310, so I just set it aside and went back to reading. Then, when I got to the attack on Reach, I realized what I'd done wrong - I forgot the four! So:
Sigma = 200.
Sigma octanus (sigma converted to an octal number) = 310.
310 + 4 = 314.
And 314 = the number of ships in the Covenant fleet sent to attack Reach!
Coincidence? I doubt it.