Operation Dark Storm Conflict Machine War Date 2095 Place Earth Outcome Earth was covered with artificial storm clouds and much of its natural life died off
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In the middle of humanity's war against machines, the leaders of the United Nations find themselves desperately trying to halt the advances of the Machines, who (in the eyes of the various governments) threatened the power bases and economies of man.

The Machines were winning the war. Looking for any way to slow the Machine's advance, scientists devise a plan to block the sun's rays from the surface of the Earth using nanites sprayed into the upper atmosphere in the hopes of cutting the Machines off from their primary power source. This "final solution" is named Operation Dark Storm^[1]. The shroud is deployed by United Nations bombers over 01 sometime in 2095, but manages to envelop the entire planet shortly after.

While the humans are successful in "scorching the sky^[2]," Operation Dark Storm fails to slow the Machines, who utterly defeat mankind to later imprison them in a virtual reality "zoo" known as the Matrix.

Even after generations with the Machines dominating the planet, they have not been able to remove the nanite shroud. As the Architect revealed to Neo that the current year is actually something like 2699, this means that even with their advanced technology the Machines have not been able to remove the nanites for six centuries. It is possible that this is because the nanite shroud was truly never meant to be deactivated, is resistant to EMP, there was no shutdown code or antidote, and the nanites are infinitely reproducing Von Neumann machines. If this is the case, it was an act of near-suicidal desperation by the United Nations. Conversely, the Machines may have simply become so used to their new civilization relying on humans powering the Matrix that they simply feel no need to remove the nanite shroud, which also conveniently starved to death most organic life on the planet.

Neo and Trinity attempt to fly the Logos over the nanite shroud in The Matrix Revolutions. This causes not only the heavily damaged hovership to short out, but also all of the Sentinels on the hull to stop working. It is therefore possible that the nanite shroud also prevents any travel into outer space, essentially trapping the Machines on Earth. However, in Goliath, it is said that the machines have sent probes into outer space, so this may not be the case.

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• History

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