Two years after the sinking of the tanker USS Discovery, with Solid Snake blamed and confirmed dead as a result, new FOXHOUND recruit Snake, (changed to Raiden during the mission) was sent to infiltrate the off-shore decontamination facility known as the Big Shell, which was constructed shortly after the sinking of the tanker, which, according the government, spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil into the New York Harbor. This would later be known as the Big Shell Incident, and more commonly, the Manhattan Incident.