During humanity's war against the machines, the leaders of the United Nations found themselves desperately trying to halt the advancement of the 01's armies, who were relentlessly advancing and overrunning various nations in Africa and Eurasia. The Machines were winning the war against the humans. Looking for any way to slow their advance, scientists devised 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" was codenamed Operation Dark Storm.