Operation Tsikada

**Operation Tsikada** (Russian: Операция Цикада), also known as the **Cicada Operation**, was a Soviet military project aimed at creating super-soldier-assassins for the KGB. Conversely, it involved the use of *Cicadas*, sleeper agents who will follow certain prescripted commands when "awakened", or activated.

## Background

During the Cold War, an arms race between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, the KGB conceived of a new type of soldier, one that was virtually undetectable to both the United States military and even local law enforcement: a Cicada. They recruited former Nazi scientist and suspected war criminal Henrich Mueller to create what they deemed "the perfect human weapon."

Over the next several years, Mueller created a brutal regimen with a mix of physical abuse and psychedelic drug dosages that would wipe away a candidate's memory and leave them susceptible to hypnotic triggers via mind control. This served to erase any trace of the agent's past and create a cover story for them, meant to conceal them from both the United States military and local law enforcement.

Operation Tsikada's ultimate purpose was to sabotage the United States of America's military capabilities through sleeper agents on American soil.

## Development

Under Mueller, Operation Tsikada saw extreme advances, with Mueller supplying the KGB with prisoners from Soviet gulags, as well as Soviet-occupied Poland. Two CIA agents, Agnes Peterson and Rupert Moore, discovered these activities and attempted to report it to the CIA. Unfortunately, their mission ended in failure when Agnes, operating undercover as a journalist at the time, was outed as a CIA agent and arrested by the KGB, while Moore managed to escape.

While in KGB activity, Agnes was subjected to waterboarding, light torture, electroshock therapy, sonic torture, physical abuse, and psychological abuse. However, much to the disbelief of the KGB handlers and even Mueller himself, Agnes went to great lengths in resisting the brainwashing. KGB agent Yuri Belov proposed breaking Agnes by starting a romantic relationship with her in the midst of the torture, something his KGB handlers were initially skeptical towards, but eventually authorized after some deliberation.

Belov was proven correct when Agnes finally cracked during their "romance", revealing her actual name. Once she successfully cracked, Agnes was put on a variety of drugs and trained in hand-to-hand combat. She was then given other POWs to torture.

To finish her training, Agnes was sent to Berlin. There, her conditioning began to break down. However, her handlers didn't notice until her "final test": execution of her fellow CIA agents after they were captured by the KGB during an ambush while on a separate mission. Agnes' programming was further weakened when said CIA POWs called out to her by name, leading her to refuse to execute them. To force her cooperation, KGB handler Anatoly Markhov ordered his men to "wipe her and start over."

After re-erasing Agnes' memories, she became a successful operative once again.

## Downfall

Unfortunately, even after being reprogrammed, her conditioning broke down. To make matters worse, Yuri Belov began to have doubts about the morality of what they were doing. After a mission against the South Vietnamese military in South Vietnam, privately confided to Agnes that he intended to defect to the United States and "blow a huge whistle" on the entire operation.

Agnes agreed, especially after memories of the torture and brainwashing resurfaced once more. However, their plan was in jeopardy after Agnes was caught plotting a prison break and returned to East Berlin for reconditioning. However, Yuri secretly sabotaged the brainwashing procedure, instead reprogramming Agnes to break out of the KGB safehouse and escape to the CIA.

After sending Agnes on a rampage across the KGB facility to cover his own escape, Yuri fled to West Berlin, where he surrendered to the US military and told them of Operation Tskiada, alongside Agnes, who had joined him sometime later.

Yuri's testimony before the American authorities effectively led to the end of Operation Tsikada. Upon finding out what Agnes and Yuri had done, KGB handler Anatoly Barkov sent KGB agents to assassinate Yuri and Agnes, but this effort failed when Agnes and Yuri reinvented themselves with new identities provided by the United States government.

## Legacy

Impressed by the extent of what the Soviets were capable of doing, the Central Intelligence Agency decided to replicate Operation Tsikada on captured Soviets. Their biggest operation, codenamed Operation Silver Sturgeon, involved brainwashing a captured Soviet agent and converting them into a CIA asset so they could and hunt down Barkov and assassinate him.

Unfortunately, this operation ended in failure when the captured Soviet in question, Anastasiya Makarova, regained her memories regarding what had been done to her and returned to the Soviets.