Chapter 178 Deep Space Fleet II_1

The Human Camps even gave birth to a new doctrine, sociological historiography, which studied the processes of development, evolution, and integration of various societies. This provided a solid theoretical foundation for the integration of the Underground City, and Ye Chen was one of the founders of this school of thought.

According to the research in sociological historiography, the development of human society would have been pondered without Lin Sen's shelter plan, the Underground City plan, and the Isolation Island plan (although the name was not known, the actions at the Moon Base were indeed real).

The results of the deductions silenced many of the human high-levels; humanity, in its great trough, had almost no resistance, and human civilization would enter a real valley of despair.

This despair would ultimately lead to humanity completely giving up resistance, and after their mindset changed, their dearest hope was to return to the patterns of the Golden Age (the societal model of the Common Era People before the Crisis Era).

Achieving success in the wrong way is more terrifying than failure, and the methods of restoring the Golden Age would inevitably lead to major breakthroughs and explosions in technology. Then humanity might really be unable to turn back, striding towards that peaceful abyss of death.

Lin Sen's plans were always aimed at preventing all this from happening; he was the one who truly saw through to the future. He guided human civilization into a new developmental course, and in this new course, he seemed to be rehearsing something with humanity, against the backdrop of the universe's starry sky.

Comprehending the Dark Forest was not difficult, but confirming that the Dark Forest was the key. With Ye Chen's intelligence, it was only a matter of time before he comprehended the Dark Forest through Lin Sen's various plans.

Under the impetus of Ye Chen and Feng Zi, the final battle escape plan was officially initiated.

The retired warships that would execute the plan also needed to be modified. Due to the large number of warships and the fact that nearly all the advanced shipyards were producing the latest star-level warships, they had to use some old shipyards, with an estimated completion time of 12 years.

The final battle escape plan would allow the Human Warships to roam in the Oort Cloud on the fringe of the Solar System, forming what was also known as the Deep Space Fleet. In the vastness of the Oort Cloud, even the Trisolarans with Sophon might find it very difficult to locate all of them.

The radius of the Oort Cloud is one light-year, and even if the Deep Space Fleet traveled at a tenth of the speed of light, it would take them 10 years to reach the edge of the Oort Cloud. With The Waterdrop blocking the inner part of the Solar System, it was manageable for the Deep Space Fleet to depart 195 years before the crisis.

The Trisolarans feared human escape and were very likely to pursue these Deep Space Fleets first. The Deep Space Fleet might encounter the Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint in battle, with a one percent chance of sending battle information back to the Solar System, serving as an outpost in the fight against the Trisolarans.

What exactly is the Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint? That is what humanity currently wants to know the most.

In this era, nobody believes that the Soothsayer Imprint is coming for peace talks; for peace talks, Sophon would suffice. But the Trisolarans never paid heed to humanity's calls. The original timeline's explanation is that the Trisolarans have transparent thoughts, so they believe humans also know they are coming for peace talks. Such self-deceiving statements are believed only by the new humans of the original timeline.

Ye Chen and other human elites are even more aware that the Soothsayer Imprint must have some purpose in coming.

If humans can analyze the specific attack methods of the Soothsayer Imprint, then they will have targeted countermeasures, and there will be hope for victory. However, it is estimated that the Trisolarans might not engage in a preliminary battle.

If the Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint directly enters the inner Solar System for a decisive battle with humanity, and if humanity is defeated, then a broadcast will be sent out to have the Deep Space Fleet flee, preserving the spark of human civilization.

If they do not receive news of humanity's defeat or any other message, they must ignore it. Because any information could be fabricated by the Trisolarans, a ruse to lure the Deep Space Fleet into making an appearance and hunting them down.

For the warriors of the Deep Space Fleet, the moment they leave their mother planet is the moment they leave the human world; it's almost impossible for them to return. Loneliness and despair will be their eternal predicaments.

They will endure tortures akin to endless hell; any culture or beliefs will shatter under the ravages of time. In fact, from the moment of departure, they will have already ceased to belong to humanity in their hearts.

They must wait in the Oort Cloud, monitoring everything in the darkness cautiously, where any moment of negligence could be disastrous, and nobody knows if a strike might come the next moment.

They can only wait in agony for the news of Earth's defeat until the resources of the warships are exhausted. Even if each warship is allocated sufficient resources to survive for thousands of years at low power, the spirits of the warriors aboard the ships will be tormented into collapse.

A truly hopeless situation with no way up to heaven and no door into the earth; neither human nor deity nor ghost, without liberation or salvation.

Moreover, they would have to be shackled by the escape monitoring system; though the human world did not care if they truly fled, their strategic objectives needed to be met.

The escape monitoring system was designed by Wade, assigning an Executive Captain to each warship; all orders to change the warship's course needed to be executed by the Executive Captain.

The Executive Captain's heart had a Cradle System installed, which required them to receive a broadcast from the Solar System's Cradle every two years. If they failed to receive it on time, the Executive Captain would die, and the fleet members, seeking release, might then execute an escape.

The only way to be released was to receive news of defeat from the Solar System, which contained a release key.

Wade had spent over a decade refining this system, considering all possible risks, such as the crew assassinating the Executive Captain. Assassination would be futile within this system.

Instead, they had to protect the Executive Captain unless they received news of humanity's defeat; otherwise, the warship would not choose to flee.

The risk of this plan was that if humanity was defeated and unable to send out the news of defeat and the Trisolarans were able to simulate the Cradle broadcast, then the Deep Space Fleet was doomed to die in the Oort Cloud.

But by that time, nothing would matter anymore.

Crisis Era, year 190.

The selection of personnel for the Deep Space Fleet was still ongoing, with more than 700 warships needing a total of over 1.5 million crew members.

Even in the present-day humanity, it would be difficult to find so many volunteers, not to mention that humans could not trust these volunteers, and those who truly volunteered could not carry out such a mission.

This was the annihilation of human nature, requiring a fearless spirit willing to sacrifice for humanity yet demanding permanent departure from the human world—a contradictory human choice that was a psychological disaster for anyone, causing many volunteers to suffer mental breakdowns before even departing.

This was when the Thoughtcontrol plan was proposed. If one didn't trust their determination, fearing they couldn't endure the lengthy voyage, they could also apply to be imprinted with Thoughtcontrol.

The human government hoped volunteers would receive the Thoughtcontrol imprint, a facility that had been under the Earth Camp's control.

In this era, Common Era People lacked compassion for women, considering even thoughts as a weapon.

The content of the belief imprinted by the Thoughtcontrol machine, which was still Hines' setting from almost 200 years ago, had remained unused.

Content of the belief: In the war against the invasion of the Trisolaran world, humanity shall prevail, invaders of the Solar System will be annihilated, and Earth civilization will endure for eternity in the universe.

The original content of the belief was not simply humanity's victory or defeat; without the crucial "Earth civilization will endure for eternity in the universe," the impulse to flee would not arise.

But now the key was "invaders of the Solar System will be annihilated," which became the psychological pillar for the fleet soldiers. With only this belief, they wouldn't contemplate others and could even "calmly" wait for their ultimate fate.

Lin Sen was very familiar with this segment of belief, as it tightly connected with his decisive escape battle, which was also why Lin Sen initially sought to obtain the imprinting machine, part of the plan.

Thoughtcontrol was not only to reassure the fleet personnel but also for the peace of mind of humanity. Only a Deep Space Fleet imprinted with Thoughtcontrol could be confidently deployed by the human government.

Sometimes, despair does not come from the worst outcome but from the unknown and the unwillingness. Just like in the original work's great trough, when humanity thoroughly believed in their inevitable defeat against the Trisolarans, they would accept it and instead peacefully enjoy life.

Lin Sen had once again accounted for every aspect of human nature, ensuring the decisive escape would proceed as anticipated.

Just that no one knew how the result for the Deep Space Fleet would differ after the critical positive and negative sign in the Thoughtcontrol was altered. Why did Feng Zi and Ye Chen support dispatching all 700 warships? If they fled, what would it mean for human civilization?

Would it leave behind the seeds of civilization, or would it prematurely expose human civilization?

This year, Wade, as the chief designer for escape monitoring and director of the PDC Strategic Intelligence Bureau, awoke from hibernation.

At the same time, waking up from hibernation were countless warriors from the Common Era who had been sent to support the future. They must rapidly master the technology of this era to make their contributions against the Trisolarans.