Intellectual © halo.bungie.org, 1999, 2000
Darcy Brockbank writes:
It's mentioned on the Marathon's Story page, that the "transmissions" on the halo.bungie.com page are in almost identical format to ship-to-ship transmissions in Iain M. Bank's magnificent Culture series.
The names of the ships in question, if they are, follow the same pattern.
From Halo:
CCS Truth and Reconciliation
SCS Pillar of Autumn
From Banks:
GSV Quietly Confident
GCU Fate Amenable To Change
GSV Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The
ROU Frank Exchange of Views
The "o" in front of the second ship's name in the format is even explained in Bank's "Excession" as indicating the recipient of the message, and an "x" indicates the sender (though they seem to have a binary character for that).
Anyway, the similarities are too much for coincidence.
Oddly enough, the name "Halo" shows up in Bank's non-culture SF novel, "Against a Dark Background." The reference to Halo is brief, and refers to it as a Machine Intelligence / Habitat, mentions that it was in interplanetary space, and a reference to it being destroyed at some time in the past history of the system.
Coincidence?
You be the judge.
- darcy
Intellectual © halo.bungie.org, 1999, 2000