Sons of the Patriots

Sons of the Patriots (SOP), often referred to as simply the System, was an advanced battlefield control system operated by the proxy AIs of the Patriots. SOP allowed state militaries and private military companies to monitor and enhance the performance of all soldiers deployed in combat via the nanomachines within their bodies.

Background
The concept of the SOP system was first thought of as far back as 1972 after the Les Enfants Terribles project. The Patriots, led by Major Zero, thought that to realise what Zero interpreted as the Boss' last will they would need to subjugate humanity under a single will. Forseeing the potential fall of the age of the Cold War and the upcoming rise of the electronic age. Zero thought of controlling weapons rather than deterring them. Cipher agent Pacifica Ocean alluded this concept to Big Boss after the Peace Walker Incident. While failing to get Big Boss to rejoin the Patriots, Zero used the results obtained from Coldman's Peace Walker project and started researching in electronics and digital technology, along with Sigint, on ways to subtly control humanity. SOP was developed and implemented by AT Security after 2009 by which time Zero's successors, the Patriots' AIs crafted their own will.

By 2014, all state armies and PMCs were known to have SOP implanted in them and even law enforcement agencies and paramilitaries were adopting them. Of course, militias and rebel armies did not have access to the System, which explained why they lost many battles to state armies.

In 2014, Liquid Ocelot, as the CEO of the largest PMC mother company, had built an army with enough firepower to rival that of the U.S. Army and was intending to use this military power to challenge the Patriots. Even with the reconstructed GW AI, he was unable to attack them as he knew they would simply lock his entire army down.

What Liquid Ocelot originally intended to do was to take the system offline, but to do this he required the DNA of Big Boss (his "father"), which acted as a key to the System. He conducted two tests on his own PMC troops, the first test in the Middle East using Liquid Snake's DNA, and the second test in South America, using the DNA of his brother Solid Snake. While both these tests partially succeeded, the withdrawal from the system drove the troops to the brink of insanity, as they were unable to cope with the emotions and memories that had before been suppressed, some even suffering fatal heart attacks from the shock. Because of the results of the Middle East test, he decided to procure the System for himself.

After stealing Solidus Snake's corpse from Big Mama (believing it to be that of Big Boss), Liquid Ocelot used it to fully gain control of the System in Eastern Europe. With SOP under Liquid's control, which he renamed "Guns of the Patriots," private armies around the world were crippled, leaving only Liquid Ocelot's personal PMCs unaffected.

The System was eventually destroyed by the FOXALIVE computer worm created by Naomi Hunter and Sunny, along with the Patriots's AI matrix. However, with the System destroyed, this would also cripple PMCs as well as state armies worldwide, leaving behind an uncertain fate. It was estimated that, as a result of FOXALIVE shutting down the Patriots' AI matrix, and taking the SOP offline by consequence, at least 10% of all PMC units and armies were suffering from symptoms of SOP withdrawal syndrome.

Functions
SOP served three main functions. The first was to allow multiple members of a military unit to share each other's senses and work more efficiently as a team. The System basically ran a unit like a network of computers, each man able to see what the others saw, feel what they felt, and rapidly coordinate tactics. This provided a massive tactical advantage to whomever used it.

The second function was to monitor the chemical balance of every soldier engaged in combat. This allowed the nanomachines to induce an artificial "combat high" by controlling the release of adrenaline and endorphins, elevating the senses and accuracy of every soldier. Furthermore, it allowed accurate monitoring of a soldier's oral intake and excrements (water, food and sweat). This refined information allowed commanders to make more informed decisions on the flow of combat. Soldiers under SOP also had their emotions suppressed so that they felt less fear and remorse than other soldiers might. One's sense of pain was subject to the same treatment, preventing minor injuries from distracting a soldier during combat.

The third main function of SOP was to monitor and control the use of weapons on the battlefield. As each soldier's weapon (excluding a few "naked guns") were "ID locked", only authorised individual soldiers could use that particular weapon. It could also prevent soldiers from firing on their own, committing human rights abuses, and attacking their own clients, although it could not prevent the increase of child soldiers or war refugees, or the PMC draftees growing younger. SOP governed all small arms and ammunition, as well as vehicles such as helicopters and tanks. It did not, however, govern anything larger than small arms, leaving weapons such as large missiles (for example, ICBMs) locked for usage by a higher-authority system.

However, it can also take many of these things away if a foreign substance that doesn't exactly match their keycode ends up trying to infiltrate their system. It undergoes a system lockdown if someone attempts to hack the system. Any soldiers tied into the SOP system in the area that are caught within the lockdown area will have their emotions released, and the shock of the pent up overwhelming emotion will cause any soldiers affected by SOP to break out in various emotions, vomiting, getting into brawls, screaming, crying, and sometimes laughing, foaming at the mouth, and eventually faint. In some cases, they may even suffer from heart attacks from the shock. Otacon, when first witnessing the lockdown process compared it to the effects of ADS (Active Denial System), although it did not disrupt the EM field. Although it does not affect those not part of the system at all, the SOP lockdown can nonetheless affect those not directly placed under the system as well to a lesser degree, as evidenced by Solid Snake's reaction to the SOP system being locked down during the Middle East even though he was never affiliated with the SOP system. Also, if the soldiers affected by the lockdown were in a mountainous region where the lockdown happened, in addition to the soldiers breaking down in their emotional state, they will also be consumed by their destructive behavior as a result of the unexpected heightened emotional state and are rendered unable to speak or become rational due to damages to the frontal lobe, as well as being rendered incapable of feeling pain.

Any living person who possesses the system either legitimately or by successfully hijacking it can also remotely deactivate vehicles or a mass of people's control over SOP by simply pointing at them and making a motion towards shooting it or making a gesture resembling a suicidal shot to the head, as evidenced with Liquid Ocelot's first actions after successfully hijacking the system with Solidus's biomort being to "shoot down" two helicopters used by the joint United States Army/Marine Corps force in an attempt to apprehend Liquid, and how Liquid Ocelot managed to deactivate the United States joint task force's control over SOP.

Personnel known to have utilized nanomachines

 * Frank Jaeger/Gray Fox (2003-2005)
 * Solid Snake (2005-2014)
 * DARPA Chief/Decoy Octopus (2005)
 * Raiden (2009)
 * Richard Ames (2009)
 * James Johnson (2009)
 * Emma Emmerich (2009)
 * Vamp (2009-2014)
 * Liquid Ocelot (2014)
 * Private military companies (2014)
 * U.S. Army (2014)
 * Rat Patrol Team 01 (2014)
 * Big Boss (2014)
 * BB Corps (2014)
 * Naomi Hunter (2014)
 * Haven Troopers (2014)

Trivia

 * The acronym for Sons of the Patriots, SOP, is also the same acronym for Standard Operating Procedure: a military term used to describe a procedure or a set of procedures to perform a given operation in reaction to a given event.
 * In 1974, Cipher agent Pacifica Ocean alluded to the concept of "controlling guns" to Big Boss. Strangelove also hypothesised an "expert system" that could allow Big Boss to choose which gun he should have.
 * Similar functions to the SOP System were already in use by 2005, where the operation of weapons could be restricted by a person's nanomachines. During The Shadow Moses Incident, Naomi Hunter used Solid Snake's nanomachines to prevent him from using lethal weapons inside the nuclear warhead storage building as shooting would have led to a leakage of plutonium from the dismantled warheads stored there.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Although the Middle Eastern militia, South American rebels, and Paradise Lost Army, are not under the control of SOP, their nanomachines can still be affected by Emotion Ammo, and the player can also use the Scanning Plug on them.

Metal Gear Online
In Metal Gear Online, the SOP System allows players to see where their teammates are at any given time and allows them to know if an ally has fallen into a trap, needs backup, has been killed/stunned, and the exact location, however the System needs to be activated by standing next to a comrade and pressing/holding the Triangle button. In addition, if one accidentally shoots their own teammate, the System will lock the gun, preventing them from firing for a few moments.

As well as being a gameplay tool, SOP can also be used by the opposing team. A player can capture an enemy and hack into their SOP System using a Scanning Plug to allow them to see all enemies linked to the one being scanned. Additionally, during the Base Mission mode, players can buy an "SOP Destabilizer", which, when placed on the enemy base, will render all opposing players unable to move or attack for 30 seconds, similar to how Guns of the Patriots worked.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
 * Metal Gear Online