Solar Fleet
Names: Solar FleetFleet InternationalCombined Solar Fleetcombined fleetthe fleetFleet CommandEarth's combined fleetSolar System Fleetnew Solar System FleetFederation Fleet
First appears in Book 2: The Dark Forest, chapter 7 (Year 205, Crisis Era)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 7The three fleets (Asian, European, North American) are independent suprastate entities and UN members, each with the might of an old superpower.
- Ch 7Merged stellar-class warships of the Asian, European and North American Fleets into 2,015 ships to intercept the Trisolaran probe at Neptune's orbit.
- Ch 7The fleet flies in a dense rectangular formation with ships about twenty kilometers apart, for fairness of combat opportunity and for political visual impact.
- Ch 8The fleet's computers dismissed the droplet's approach as low-level alarms or an illusion, and commanders believed it had self-destructed with Mantis.
- Ch 8Fleet commanders misjudged the attack as coming from a powerful invisible enemy force, possibly a third alien party, and looked outward into space.
- Ch 8Its command system wrongly hunted an invisible enemy fleet and took thirteen minutes to identify the droplet, by which time over six hundred ships were lost.
- Ch 8Humanity's space forces were annihilated, with only Quantum and Bronze Age surviving.
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 13The Earth's combined fleet was completely destroyed fourteen years before this passage; survivors fought internecine battles in darkness and cut off contact with Earth.
- Ch 15Fleet Command sent one transmission to Bronze Age and Blue Space announcing a working deterrence system and ordering them home; it would not be repeated.
- Ch 15Fleet International's military police surrounded and arrested Bronze Age's crew for first-degree murder and crimes against humanity.
- Ch 15The new Solar System Fleet is a single unified force replacing the three former space fleets.
- Ch 16Held the Bronze Age court-martial at its geosynchronous-orbit base; its prison is in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
- Ch 25The Fleet's chief of staff tells Cheng Xin they do not want her to live like Luo Ji.
- Ch 35Around 100 stellar-class warships obeyed Sophon and returned to Mars orbit rather than escape into deep space.
- Ch 53Has extensive experience building space cities and already has a sizable base around Jupiter.
- Ch 58Fleet International and the UN plan to release Tianming's deciphered information gradually, disguised as Earth research with false results mixed in, to protect him.
- Ch 58Fleet International and the UN issued a joint statement declaring the dark forest strike alarm false.
- Ch 65After Fleet International dissolved, the Solar System Fleet passed to the Federation and was shrunk; only about thirty stellar-class warships remained, most efforts going to the advance warning system.
Connections
- includesAsian Fleet
- includesEuropean Fleet
- includesNorth American Fleet
- has memberInfinite Frontier
- has memberYuanfang
- has memberAdam
- has memberGanges
- enemy ofTrisolaran probe
- has memberBronze Age
- has memberGravity
- related togravitational wave deterrence systemdirectly operates
- related toSophonObeyed her orders to return to Mars
- includesIntelligence Decipherment Committee
- member ofBunker ProjectFleet International and the UN agree the project can avoid draining Earth's resources
- ally ofUnited NationsJointly ran the simulation test
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 7Combined fleet launches from Jupiter
The 2,015-ship combined fleet departs Jupiter base to intercept the Trisolaran probe, a spectacle watched with awe and pride worldwide.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Droplet destroys Mantis and the first row of the fleet
Communications are jammed, the droplet ignites its tail halo, vaporizes the team and Mantis, then speeds through the fleet's first row of a hundred warships, detonating them in fusion explosions in 78 seconds.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Fleet fails to grasp the attack
As the droplet turns toward Ganges and the second row, Fleet Command is in shock and relies on a computer that blames an unseen enemy force.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Droplet destroys the second and third rows
The droplet annihilates the second row of 100 ships in under a minute and a half, then weaves through the third row in 2 minutes 35 seconds while debris adds to the confusion.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Zhao Xin and Li Wei deduce the truth
Two hibernator officers realize a single tiny projectile is passing through ships one after another; their analysis is not passed up, but the command system later reaches the same conclusion after thirteen minutes.
- Book 3 · Ch 15Recall message and confirmation
Ten days after Earth's signals stopped, Fleet Command's message ordered Bronze Age and Blue Space home. A sophon channel then confirmed it, and Bronze Age turned back.
- Book 3 · Ch 15Crew arrested
After roll call, the welcome turns out to be a deception. The fleet captain dishonorably discharges the crew, and military police arrest them for murder and crimes against humanity.
- Book 3 · Ch 16Court-martial of Bronze Age crew
At the fleet base in geosynchronous orbit, Scott, Schneider and Rovinski are questioned. Scott admits 94% of the crew voted to attack Quantum, and Rovinski reveals the crew ate Quantum's dead. Scott and six officers get life sentences, and most of the crew get long terms.
- Book 3 · Ch 18Authority handed back to Luo Ji
After Luo Ji transferred deterrence control to the UN and Fleet, humanity quickly realized only he gave credible deterrence and returned it within eighteen hours; Trisolaris failed to strike during that window.
- Book 3 · Ch 25Deterrence authority handover
After a surface ceremony, Cheng Xin descends forty-five kilometers to the Deterrence Center, where the PDC chair and the Fleet chief of staff oversee the final handover of deterrence authority and offer to redecorate the bleak lobby to her taste.
- Book 3 · Ch 35Sophon announces the genocide of Australia
Addressing an emergency UN General Assembly in Canberra, Sophon declares a blockade of Australia and a ban on electricity for three months, dooming most of the 4.2 billion people there to starvation.
- Book 3 · Ch 41Public blame after the Deterrence Era
After the universal broadcast, humanity denounces the Swordholder and the selection process, though Cheng Xin is treated relatively sympathetically and fades from public attention.
- Book 3 · Ch 52Attention shifts to the Bunker Project
Politicization and lack of progress ended hopes of a miracle, and Fleet International and the UN turned to preserving civilization with known technology, via the Bunker Project.
- Book 3 · Ch 53Bunker Project outlined
The document lays out the Bunker Project: after rejecting stellar escape and long-distance avoidance, humanity would build fifty space cities in the shadows of the four gas giants to survive a dark forest strike on the Sun.
- Book 3 · Ch 58Alarm declared false
Fleet International and the UN announce the dark forest strike alarm is false, ending unauthorized launches; the aftermath leaves burnt bodies and chaos at the spaceport.
- Book 3 · Ch 60Discovery of curvature propulsion trails
Observing the ruined Trisolaran system, Widnall and Vasilenko find transparent bubbles, realize they are lightspeed trails, and send an alarm-level report to Fleet Command and the PDC, which leaks and sparks panic.
- Book 3 · Ch 60Lightspeed research banned
Because trails expose civilizations, Fleet International, the UN and nations prohibit curvature propulsion research, leaving only the Bunker Project and the Black Domain Plan.
- Book 3 · Ch 62Bunker Project simulation test
A hydrogen bomb detonated among asteroid stand-ins for the planets. Volunteers sheltered behind the fake Jupiter survived unharmed, and the broadcast brought cheers on Earth.