Although the CIA's MKULTRA project was considered an overall success, the project met with its share of failures. During the 1960s, many of the project's research teams were pursuing genetic engineering experiments in an attempt to outpace similar covert projects underway in Eastern Bloc nations. These projects silently spurred each other onward and quickly escalated into a covert race to create the first bio-engineered "super soldier". The lengths to which the scientists were willing to go to beat the Soviets and the disregard they showed their human test subjects caused the Aegis Cells within MKULTRA to distance themselves from the projects. This is not to say that they did not keep tabs on the projects' success or lack thereof.

One of MKULTRA's more spectacular failures was an experiment in which genetically modified teenagers were subjected to a battery of drugs and hypnosis sessions. These teenagers were normally docile and well-behaved, but would become violent and detached from morality on command. This seemed to be an excellent step toward the creation of so-called "super soldiers". However, it soon became clear that many of the "patients" were unstable and psychotic as a result of the dichotomy in their own behavior. Indeed, one subject's psychotic episode sparked a riot among the other patients and resulted in the destruction of much of the lab facility and the death of almost half the research staff. The experiment was quickly shut down. An Aegis Cell stepped in, oversaw the cover up operation, and recovered all useful information that could be salvaged from the experiment. Through extensive therapy and repressive hypnosis, the Cell was able to rehabilitate a good number of the patients and allow them to be reassimilated into society.

Aegis closely monitored the young charges for signs of relapse, but after nearly two decades of normal behavior, Aegis canceled its surveillance program. This proved to be a tragic mistake. During the late 80's, Aegis began receiving reports of former MKULTRA subjects experiencing psychotic episodes, often resulting in a homicidal rampage and the death of the subject. It seemed the Aegis hypnosis was crumbling, leaving the MKULTRA patients violent sociopaths. Having lost track of most of the patients after ending its surveillance, Aegis was forced to wait for the test subjects to act up before they could neutralize them.

One of the worst cases to date arose when agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) requested FBI support during a stand-off situation at the home of one Jackson Reeves and family. Reeves had been one of MKULTRA's test subjects and his name in the BATF request triggered warning bells in Aegis. Upon further investigation, the situation was found to be worse than expected.

The BATF had been watching Reeves, a militant white supremacist, for some time. He lived with his wife, son and two young daughters on a rural farm in Harper's Cross, Iowa. While the BATF was building a case for illegal weapons possession, Reeves and a neighbor began a dispute over certain land. The escalating argument triggered a psychotic episode and Reeves began firing high caliber weapons at his neighbor's house at night. Reeves nightly attacks prompted the BATF to take action. Reeves was arrested on a number of weapons and assault related charges, but was released on bail and later failed to appear in court. After adding a few more charges to their warrant, BATF returned again to the rural homestead to arrest Jackson Reeves.

Anticipating that Reeves would resist arrest, and considering the nature of the charges, the BATF surrounded the Reeves home with agents. Not surprisingly, Reeves response was hostile. The BATF agents were met at the door with gunfire, and one BATF agent was wounded before he could make it off the Reeves' porch. The agents fell back and attempted to negotiate with Jackson. Any chance of a quick and painless resolution to the situation was lost, however, when the Reeves' dog escaped the house, flushed out and attacked a BATF agent, who shot and killed it. The dog's death triggered a psychotic rage in Jimmy, the Reeves' teenage son. Jimmy rushed the BATF agents, guns blazing, and managed to kill one agent and wound two others before being cut down by the BATF crossfire. After his son's death, Jackson refused to negotiate, and BATF called in the FBI.

An FBI SWAT team sent to provide backup was made up entirely of Aegis operatives. The team had been used extensively during Aegis' cover up operations of MKULTRA failures and had become quite proficient at taking out delusional and psychotic "super soldiers". During the flight to Harper's Cross, the team received word that Aegis had made another unpleasant discovery. Jackson Reeves' wife Tammy had been positively identified as another MKULTRA "patient" who had been chosen for her high scores in ESP testing. Furthermore, Aegis had found indications from the BATF surveillance reports that the Reeves' two young twins were exhibiting signs of uncontrolled psychic or supernatural ability. The SWAT team reassessed the threat that the Reeves' family posed and revised the Rules of Engagement at Harper's Cross to "shoot on sight". The team would be taking no chances.

The FBI backup arrived at the Reeves' home to find a stalemate. Jackson Reeves would neither negotiate nor present the assembled agents with a clear target. BATF would not assault the home for fear of endangering Reeves' wife or children. The Aegis team had no such reservations. After a quick briefing on the current situation, the SWAT team took up positions and attempted to coax either Jackson or his wife out into the open. They convinced Jackson to begin negotiating by promising his wife safe passage. When the opportunity presented itself, Aegis snipers took the shot and killed Tammy Reeves. One hour after the death of his wife, Jackson Reeves gave himself up to the BATF agents without further violence.

Aegis acted quickly to bring the situation to a close and prevent any further attention. Reeves was taken quietly into custody to await trial. Initial testing indicated to Aegis that the Reeves twins, Ginger and Amanda, were both supernatural Foci. The twins were split up and sent to separate foster homes, but Aegis kept a close eye on them both, unwilling to risk a repeat of the Harper's Cross incident.

Ginger Reaves was sent to live with a foster family in Arizona. The family was kind and caring, but Ginger's violent and bigoted upbringing made her assimilation into the new family difficult. The subtle but ever-present supernatural manifestations that followed Ginger to her new home wore at her family's sanity, though a connection between her and the strange apparitions was never conclusively established. After four years of increasingly strained relations, the attempt to give Ginger a "normal" family life came to a sudden and tragic end. Ginger's foster family was killed in a freak spontaneous fire on Halloween. Twelve year old Ginger was made a ward of the State and institutionalized.

The Aegis Cell watching Ginger decided that she posed too great a threat to herself and others, and more importantly to Aegis anonymity. The Cell began to arrange for Ginger's release into Aegis custody and the subsequent "loss" of any records of her existence. This process took several weeks, and during that time, Ginger made friends with one of the other children at the institution. Together, Ginger and her new friend escaped the institution mere hours before Aegis operatives arrived to take custody of her.

The operatives tracked Ginger and her companion to the isolated temple of a religious cult outside Phoenix. The cult was extremely paranoid and fanatical, and the agents were prevented from following Ginger into their fortified compound. The uncharacteristically high security of the cult's compound and the unusually well-armed guards both piqued the agent's curiosity, and convinced them that the forcible acquisition of Ginger would be folly.

An Aegis operative spent nearly a month infiltrating the cult and gaining entrance to the compound. Once inside, he made a series of frightening discoveries. The leader of the Cult, Harold Simms, was a powerful and charismatic occultist who had assembled a large following of fanatic disciples. Simms had convinced his thralls that Armageddon was fast approaching, and that he, as their Messiah, would lead them through the destroyed world to paradise. Simms had amassed a huge arsenal of weapons to "ease" the cult through their journey. More importantly, Simms was preparing to conduct a powerful ritual that he claimed would shield his followers from the upcoming destruction, and impart him with the divine power he would need to shepherd them to the promised land. Part of Simms preparation involved taking a large number of young women as his wives. The infiltrator determined that two of the adolescents taken by Simms as consorts were supernatural Foci, one was Ginger Reeves.

Aegis concluded from the undercover agent's reports that Simms' likely goal for the ritual was to become one of the Incarnate, an individual with a powerful connection to the supernatural world. Aegis knew that such status invariably drove the individual mad. With the power of two supernatural Foci and an group of heavily armed fanatics at his beck and call, an insane Simms could bring forth his own Armageddon. The Cell decided that Simms must be stopped at any cost.

Aegis tipped off the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to Simms' stockpile of weapons, planning to use their inevitable raid as cover for a strike team. The team would acquire Simms' two young Foci and rob him of his power. Somehow, Simms was forewarned of the BATF raid and prepared an ambush for the BATF agents. Unprepared and outgunned, half the BATF team was cut down immediately and the rest forced to beat a hasty retreat. The BATF, joined by the FBI, surrounded the compound and demanded that Simms surrender. Simms of course refused and soon the cultists and the assembled agents prepared for a prolonged standoff. Given the siege, the operative inside the compound was unable to report to Aegis on the situation for nearly two weeks. When word finally got out, the tone was terse and panicked. Simms had begun his ritual several days earlier and was very near completion. Aegis had less than twenty-four hours to put an end to the ritual.

Using every ounce of pull the Cell had in Washington, Aegis managed to get the federal agents the go-ahead to take out the compound by any means necessary. Just before dawn the following day, the assembled agents launched a full scale assault on the compound. Over one hundred agents and several armored vehicles were employed. In the course of the assault, the compound was set ablaze and destroyed, and many cultists were killed. The Aegis strike team, however, was able to secure Ginger and the assault was considered to be successful, if only to Aegis. The body of Harold Simms was never found and was assumed to have been incinerated by the inferno that destroyed the temple. Once again, Aegis was reminded that Aliens and the Black Book were not the only threat. Old loose ends kept coming back to haunt Aegis, and they could never allow their vigilance to falter.