Cryska Barchenowa is a Soviet Federation Army Lieutenant and Tactical Surface Fighter, or TSF, pilot who serves as one of the central characters in the narrative. She is a member of the Idar Test Flight, part of the 331st Special Experimental Development Corps, where she is assigned the call sign Idar 1. Together with her fellow pilot Inia Sestina, she is famously known as one half of the "Scarlet Twins". Her origins lie in a secretive and tragic past; she is a genetically engineered psychic and an artificial ESP discovery body, created as part of the top-secret United Nations plan known as Alternative III. This program, which originally sought to establish communication with the extraterrestrial BETA, ultimately ended in catastrophic failure, after which Cryska was incorporated into the Soviet military.

In terms of personality, Cryska presents a formidable and often hostile exterior. She is typically cold, curt, and aggressive towards strangers and even her own comrades, frequently displaying an attack-prone attitude. This defensive shell is a direct result of her harsh upbringing as a state-engineered weapon. However, this hardness melts away completely in her interactions with Inia Sestina, towards whom she shows a rare, gentle, and profoundly protective affection. Her feelings for Inia are fiercely sisterly, bordering on an obsession, and she is willing to endure humiliation or any hardship to ensure the younger girl's safety. Despite her initial resistance to forming bonds, she gradually develops a complex emotional connection to the protagonist, Yuuya Bridges, which becomes a significant factor in her personal development.

As a survivor of the Alternative III program, Cryska possesses powerful psychic abilities, primarily the capability to read minds, although her telepathic strength is generally portrayed as inferior to that of Inia. To control these overwhelming psychic powers and her emotional state, she wears limiters disguised as two ordinary hair clips. The removal of these limiters is a dangerous last resort; it sends her into an uncontrollable berserker state, wherein she unleashes devastating destruction on anything in her vicinity, unable to distinguish between allies and enemies. Her combat skills are exceptional even without her psychic powers. She is noted to possess greater combat proficiency than her partner Inia, demonstrating high levels of skill both inside a TSF and in personal combat with firearms and melee weapons. While a fearless warrior, she harbors a private fear of large, open bodies of water, a vulnerability she does not display as openly as Inia does.

Within the story of the international "Prominence" project, Cryska’s primary motivation is the protection of Inia, but she also struggles with her own identity as a tool of the state. Her role is that of a key combat asset, but her journey involves a gradual humanization as she interacts with the international team. Her relationships with others evolve significantly; beyond her attachment to Inia, she forms an amicable, rival-like respect for the Japanese pilot Takamura Yui and, most importantly, begins to open her heart to Yuuya Bridges, revealing deep-seated insecurities and a capacity for genuine connection. A major turning point in her development occurs when external forces compromise her mental state, causing her to lose control. In this state, she poses a lethal threat to her own allies, including Yuuya, and it is only through Inia’s intervention that a tragedy is averted. This event underscores the immense danger of her powers and her constant struggle to maintain control. Her personal history is further complicated by the existence of her twin sister, Martica Barchenowa, who shares a similar fate as a psychic pilot and serves as a dark mirror to Cryska's own path.