On April 29, 2009, the Sons of Liberty took control of the Big Shell offshore oil cleanup facility off the coast of Manhattan. After assuming command of the facility, they appropriated the secretly-developed Arsenal Gear warship and its artificial intelligence program GW. Solidus planned to decode GW in order to discover the Patriots' identities and launch a nuclear weapon in the skies above Manhattan, thus causing a gigantic electromagnetic pulse – effectively "unplugging" Manhattan and leading it to become a free republic. However, the entire plan was being manipulated by the Patriots' intervention through their agent, Revolver Ocelot.