Cerberus Part One: From the Ashes (2003)

User Summary:

From the Introduction:

This mission should take place one or two weeks after the attack on Orpheus. The crucible is on the run, and only just beginning to realise the extent of the forces amassed against them.

The crucible is located by another apparent Orpheus survivor, a woman named Alya Townsend. Alya is a projected sleeper agent who claims to have been away on an extended mission during the attack on Orpheus. Upon hearing the news, she says, she immediately returned to the ruins of Orpheus HQ, but searching through the debris she was unable to find the cryo-tank that was keeping her body in stasis. It had been removed, and since Alya is still alive (a sleeper rather than a spirit) her body is still out there somewhere, presumably still in cryo-sleep.

Alya begs the crucible for help. She claims to have been projected for over two months on an extended haunting mission when she got word of the destruction of Orpheus, and is now on the verge of hysterics. Her mental health (see page 117 of Crusade of Ashes) is in serious jeopardy, and the problem only becomes worse the longer she spends outside of her body.

What the characters do not know, but will probably find out the hard way, is that Alya lost her sanity a long time ago. Alya Townsend was, in fact, one of the early Project Echo sleepers, the second generation of Orpheus agents. She was one of the first long-term sleepers, and it was through her that Orpheus learned that extended projecting on the part of sleepers can cause severe psychological damage. She became addicted to Skinriding, staying out of her body for longer and longer and refusing to obey orders to go on beach. She taught herself to burst-project when she was on beach time, so severe was her addicted. A number of months ago she fled from the Orpheus Group rather than be forced back into her body after a mission, and has been in a projected state since that time. As might be imagined, the damage to her psyche has been considerable.

However, Alya's body is gone... it was stolen away from the Orpheus HQ, and now that the Orpheus Group has been destroyed, she wants it back, if only to help her recuperate from the madness that now grips her every thought. Somebody removed her body from Sub-Basement 4 following the attack on Orpheus. She wants the crucible's help in locating her body again, though she doesn't want the fact that she went MIA to become known to them and will happily lie to the characters to convince them otherwise.