Espionage

Running an Espionage Hive
Any planet inhabited by any major faction can be the target of espionage. To begin, a space pod or drop pod loaded with at least an egg layer must be deployed to the target planet. Once on the surface, the egg layer will select an eligible location from gathered data and establish a small hive capable of teleporting in resources if needed from the main hive network, and will produce an Advanced Relay or Moderate Relay to establish communication with the hive network and begin monitoring the local population. A hive hidden on a planet can be set to a passive behavior, which will determine the hive's overall goals on the planet and the resources it will consume to reach them. This behavior setting increases in level of infiltration and complexity as the hive expands outward and roots itself into the target world, and will also grant the hive the option to specialize by focusing on one active operation per level of infiltration. Operations are specific goals set for the hive that it will actively work towards, expending resources and deploying drones and agents to accomplish that goal. Active operations can be used to impose modifiers on a planet, influence the population, or alter the hive itself. In addition to operations, a hive can expend its resources and agents to perform Espionage Actions, such as sabotage, assassination, kidnapping, or attacking specific centers or buildings. A hive can only have one passive behavior and one active Operation per level of passive behavior, with more activity creating a greater chance of detection. A hive can perform as many actions as it can afford at any time, however such actions will alert local authorities, increasing the chances of being detected, or resulting in the loss of intelligence networks and agents.

Avoiding detection
Every planet has two statistics governing its population's general mood: Agitation, and Suspicion. Agitation is the level of general contentment or discontent that the population feels at large. As Agitation increases, so does the likelihood of protests, riots, and even open revolt against the current establishment and the perceived source of the agitation. Agitation is increased by high levels of Suspicion, can be altered by certain Active Operations or Actions, and tends to decrease over time. Suspicion determines how suspicious the local populace is of its infiltration. As suspicion increases, so will the failure rates of Active Operations and Actions performed by the Hive and other infiltrating factions, as does the likelihood of discovery. Suspicion is increased by failed Active Operations, Actions, and by the actions of Psionically Resistant individuals. It can be decreased by some Active Operations and will tend to decrease over time. A Hive must be set to at least Passive Observation to determine the Agitation and Suspicion of a planet.

Detection and Counter Intelligence
Planets will not sit idle as they are infiltrated, but will react actively and passively to outside threats. When an espionage hive is detected, it is not immediately revealed to the population, but the local authorities and populace will become more suspicious that something is afoot, allowing for local factions to perform investigations to root out your hive's networks. If such an investigation is allowed to succeed, the network and hive assets involved will be lost and either captured or destroyed, forcing the espionage hive to reduce in level or be removed entirely. Captured hive assets will never betray the Queen, but their presence in captivity can potentially benefit other related investigations or cause an international incident. Captured assets can typically be ransomed through back-channel political negotiations or prisoner exchanges, and their existence will rarely be publicly reported for fear of the local populace losing faith in their law enforcement.

Counter Intelligence and Hive-owned worlds
Any planet that is owned by the Hive and contains a sizable non-hive population will have a Suspicion and Agitation stat just as any other world, and likewise the Hive may perform espionage activity on Hive-owned worlds just the same as any other, with the addition of a number of dedicated counter-lintel options, and a lack of a need for special espionage resources.

The Agitation score of a Hive-owned represents the mainstream population's approval of Hive rule, and its overall acceptance within the Hive's social structure. High Agitation will cause growing anti-Hive sentiment potentially causing rebellion or organized criminal activity. Agitation is increased by random events, enemy espionage activity, Hive activity, and various social or economic problems such as crime, poverty, unemployment, poor infrastructure, and other such problems. It will decrease over time and can be lowered through certain Hive activity, the presence of Elite Hive Agents, and random events.

The Suspicion score of a Hive-owned planet represents the trust or mistrust the local populace places in the Hive and its Queen, and how overall suspicious the population is of potentially malevolent Hive activity upon its people. High Suspicion lowers the effectiveness of certain Hive actions and Operations, will increase Agitation, and improve the effectiveness of enemy intelligence networks on the planet. Suspicion will lower over time, but can also be lowered through certain events, and the popularization of Hive culture. Low Suspicion will result in more of the local populace willingly indulging in Hive cybernetic use and becoming more accepting of mental communication with the Hive.

The Passive Behavior orders an espionage hive can follow are listed bellow with their corresponding Operations. All Operations are listed under their minimum behavior that is required to perform them, while Actions may have one or more requirements that are listed, or have none at all.

[Maintain Concealment](1 Active Operation): The hive maintains its secrecy, working to hide itself from the planet. It will pull itself back to a minimum size, its agents entering deep cover or self-terminating as needed, as well as scrubbing away any evidence of its past operations or activity. The hive will gather no intelligence, interact with no locals, and avoid all activity until told otherwise while drastically reducing the likelihood of discovery. A concealed hive can take no actions, and has the following Operations available.

>Cover-up: The hive dedicates its entire network of agents, clones, and drones to damage control, burning agents on the verge of capture, scrubbing evidence wherever found, and working to prevent or mitigate the fallout of any actions or operations the hive may have taken. This process is inherently damaging to the hive's intelligence network on the planet, as it burns entire divisions in an effort to deflect blame and avoid discovery at all costs. Dramatically decreases Suspicion, but may increase Agitation slightly.

>Acid Burn: The hive systematically self-destructs. All clones will destroy all evidence of their activities before destroying themselves, all drones are recycled, any and all agents are scrubbed of their memories and their parasites removed. The hive itself shrinks back to its original egg layer, which then self-destructs. This process takes one day for each level of behavior it is engaged in, with a concealed hive burning in 1 day, and a controlling hive requiring 5 days.

[Passive Observation](2 Active Operations): Flies, small drones, and (if designed) relay equipped drones are deployed to monitor the local population while avoiding any and all direct contact, covert or otherwise, to create as little evidence of its activity as possible. An observation hive will gather intelligence passively, examining news broadcasts and radio frequencies, as well as gathering data files on all notable individuals, social icons, political leaders, and high ranking officials and examining cultural opinions and political movements through passive psionic reading while avoiding any and all direct interaction through clones or agents, and the hive itself maintains a minimum size. An Observing hive has the following Operations available.

>Dream Catchers: (requires a mobile medium drone design equipped with a moderate relay) Relay capable drones are deployed to strategic locations throughout major population centers to monitor and subtly alter the thoughts and dreams of the local population. The hive works to remove any evidence of its activities, and so long as this Operation is in effect, the local population will be less aware of any new evidence of the hive's actions or operations, dismissing any evidence out of hand, and quickly forgetting it as they sleep. While this process works to make the majority of a population passive and lower their suspicion, individuals with heightened resistance to psionic influence or who are already suspicious of their thoughts being manipulated will become more agitated and paranoid as their dreams are interrupted by the whispering of the hive and those around them refuse to see more and more obvious mounting evidence of a conspiracy. Decreases Agitation and Suspicion moderately, but increases the likelihood of psionically resistant individual activity.

>Invasive Research: Drones are deployed throughout the planet's civilian centers, both rural and metropolitan in order to classify and catalog the local biosphere as well as local cultural and biological anomalies that may exist in the population, including local and seasonal diseases, naturally occurring parasites or pathogens, and any locally occurring genetic abnormalities, mutations, or defects as well as working to find their potential causes. An effort is made to be as unobtrusive as possible, but the inevitable minor trace of evidence left from the semi-regular home invasion and occasional missing pet or person may cause local authorities in some regions to become paranoid, as well as a slight agitation of the local populace. While this Operation is in effect, the hive is far more aware of cultural shifts in the planet's population, and is alerted to any and all pathogen outbreaks, both natural and otherwise, and gains an innate understanding of the planet's biosphere and social order, increasing the effectiveness of any actions and operations taken by the observation hive. For as long as this Operation is maintained the hive gains a bonus to the chance of success for Actions, and all other Active Operations benefit from an increase in potency. If the Operation has a time requirement, it is halved. In addition, Psionically resistant individuals have a chance to be discovered. Slightly increases Suspicion, and has a chance to increase Agitation slightly. Increases the activity of psionically resistant individuals.

[Covert Infiltration](3 Active Operations):An infiltrating hive will expand its facilities, creating large numbers of medical pods with which to begin mass production of randomized clones of the local species. These clones then begin to infiltrate the planet's major population centers, posing as members of the planet's underclass or fringe of society, they will observe, blend in, and interact with the local population, gaining employment and legal identification where possible, and otherwise observing and acting as supporting agents for other clones and agents, serving as disposable sources of weapons, local currency, and disseminating intelligence and orders as needed. This infiltration is broad and slow spreading in nature, but can be focused to work towards very specific goals, as well as expended to perform certain actions.

>Greatest Ally: A mixture of subliminal psionic influence and widespread propaganda campaigns are implemented to make the local population more welcoming to Hive culture and technology, more trusting of Hive recommended policies, and more accepting of Hive influence over local politics. Clones attempt to gain employment in local news agencies, and work to use parasites to infest and control influential cultural figures and news workers to sway public opinions, while relays and drone networks monitor and manipulate the minds of the population to be more receptive to growing pro-Hive mass media campaign efforts. While the population in general will become more accepting of the Hive and its Queen, individuals with a heightened resistance to psionic influence will have the opposite effect, growing more suspicious and hostile to the notion of growing Hive influence over everyday life, and the seemingly blind acceptance of increasingly blatantly biased news coverage those around him take at face value without pause for thought. Dramatically decreases Suspicion, but increases Agitation and Suspicion dramatically in psionically resistant individuals.

>Vive La Fourmis: The local population is telepathically agitated, making every innocent slight of their government seem as if the product of systemic incompetence and rampant corruption. Dreams of violent riots, protests, and open rebellion work to push the population of the planet to the brink of chaos and clones work to fuel tensions through organized protests and false flag operations both in the media and beyond. If the local population is not already discontented with their government, this will have little effect alone, but can with luck push an already unstable situation over the edge. Increase Agitation greatly and increases Suspicion slightly.

>Beggars and Taidarens: The infiltrating hive makes the utmost use out of any local taidaren population or permanent underclass, using small numbers of cloned agents and covert drones to infest the dregs and outcasts of the local planet's society in order to gain a large number of infected hosts in a short amount of time. While such targets offer little direct influence, such individuals often go noticed by others and frequent many of the same circles as a planet's criminal underground, providing a mixture of cheap but often unreliable contacts and materials, granting a small chance each day of receiving a random resource to perform Actions. In addition, Actions can be done at a reduced cost, but with an increased chance of failure.

[Silent Manipulation](4 Active Operations): The hive expands its network of intelligence gathering and manipulation efforts to include the local power structure. Clone agents work to gain access to more prominent individuals, and parasites are used to infect local doctors, minor politicians, law enforcement officials, and influential figures. This process is slow and broad in scope, but can be focused in certain areas for faster and more effective results. At this stage, the manipulating hive gains some sway over the planet's official politics and can work to sway the votes of both officials and civilians, as well as gain some small level of immunity from local laws through a mixture of bribery, infiltrated clones, and parasite infected officials cooperating with hive efforts. The hive's intelligence gathering also now gains access to previously classified information typically restricted from the common citizen, although access to this information is still random and unreliable. A manipulating hive has access to the following Operations.

>Cults and Collaborators: Clone agents begin recruiting and vetting the local population for those unhappy with the local government or social structure, as well as the uneducated or those easily manipulated via Psionic influence to create secretive cults spread throughout the planet's major population centers. Within these cults, parasites are administered to infect the local population in order to recruit a large number of disenfranchised but unimportant locals in a relatively small amount of time, targeting primarily lower and middle class unemployed or part time service workers that can be utilized as vectors of attack in sabotage attempts and other hive Actions, the hive also gains the ability to artificially increase or decrease local agitation by a mild amount passively. Increases Suspicion slightly.

>Cabals and Cartels: The local hive focuses its efforts on the planet's underground and corrupt elite, establishing contact with smugglers, corrupt officials, crime syndicates, and shady corporate leaders throughout the planet's population centers. The hive's intelligence and agent network gains access to more advanced and heavy weapons and larger sums of local currency more quickly and easily, although this money's volatile and criminal nature limits its use to clandestine hive efforts. In addition, the hive focuses on taking advantage of any and all pre-existing criminal or resistance networks in place by other local elements, recruiting and infecting their agents and incorporating their resources into the manipulating hive. Each day the Hive will gain 1 random non-civilian supply, and there is a small chance the Hive will gain access to a pre-existing criminal or clandestine network, granting access to a free sleeper agent. While the risk of detection is increased slightly, any failure can be framed on the pre-existing criminal organization, which is quickly burned and discarded as a scapegoat, removing the effects of this operation, but nullifying any negative blowback from a failed Action. Increases Suspicion slightly, but can be canceled to nullify the effects of one Action failure, turning any Suspicion generated from the failure into Agitation.

>Currency and Capital: Agents and clones focus on establishing a series of connections to the planets local financial and industrial sectors, focusing on the administrative staff of facilities through a combination of bribery, clone infiltration in the work force, and parasite infestation of prominent individuals within the economy in an effort to gain control of the planet's banking, financial, and industrial sectors. While political circles are largely left untouched, the influence over the planet's major source of wealthy elite and the administrative middlemen beneath them does grant some influence over local politics by proxy, however the main benefit is the ability to fund more seemingly legitimate methods of hive influence across the planet, as well as control over local ports and trade routes permitting the ability to smuggle resources or agents on or off of the planet at will with little risk of discovery. Business ties between the target world and others grant a limited passive intelligence of other stations and worlds within the target planet's sphere of influence, and the delicate balance of finance offers extensive targets to sabotage. So long as this operation is in effect, the hive can order equipment and weapons openly and mostly legally, as well as gaining a mostly legal income from local corporate corruption. 1 Credit Cache is gained each day, and the Black Market action no longer has a chance to fail. Increases Suspicion slightly.

[Proxy Control](5 Active Operations + 2 bonus when fully active): Clones, agents, and drones work in concert to build hive infiltrators up to as many positions of authority as possible. The media is held under a tight grip, with most or all news reporters being controlled by hive clones or infected collaborators while entertainment media creates an image of support for hive activities and objectives on the planet. Major industry and financial sectors are led in nearly all areas by parasite infected tycoons, working under hive influence to maintain a balance of economic growth made to give the appearance of immediate success to the policies of clone and parasite infected politicians and local administrators and officials while relay equipped drones pacify the population through psionic influence and seek out hostile or anti-hive thoughts and behavior. There is no aspect of life on the planet that does not go unnoticed by a concert of hive thinkers, and every aspect of life is monitored to unfold in an orderly and controllable manner. All but the most overt of Actions will go completely unnoticed by the local populace. Mostly hybrid dominated law enforcement actively pursue and detain those resistant to the hive's psionic influence and the public shun those suspicious of the hive or the events of local authorities as paranoid and xenophobic at best, mad conspiracy theorists at worst. If the planet has an official representative in a larger governing body, such as the Union parliament, a member of the representative's staff will be a hive agent, if not the representative himself. The hive has near total control over the events of local government, as well as heavy influence over large scale crime syndicates and rebel factions, which quickly become controlled opposition helping to cement hive control. The number of steps required to go from a hive proxy rule to overt hive rule are startlingly few. The finished Control hive gains the ability to enact up to two additional Operations across the planet at the same time. While it takes a great deal of time and effort to finish, a Control hive can immediately begin working on the following Operations even before its control is established.

>A world for mother: All resources of the control hive are dedicated to expanding its influence across the planet, accelerating plans and doubling down on propaganda dissemination. The control hive's upkeep is doubled, and the likelihood of discovery increases as the planet is invaded from the shadows. This operation requires 10 days by default, but may take more or less time depending on the planet's population and the hive's previously established intelligence network. So long as the operation is in effect, the spread of the hive's influence expands at an accelerated rate. Once complete, the controlling hive is considered to have total control over the planet and gains the relevant bonuses from Proxy Control. Once total Proxy Control is accomplished, this Operation ends. The process increases Agitation and Suspicion, but once finished the passive reduction rate for both is greatly increased, but psionically sensitive individuals become greatly agitated and suspicious.

>One in the Hive: A campaign of populist led protests, news made propaganda, corporate sponsored petitions, and political declarations are used to push the planet's population to accept the idea of and push for the overt control of the planet by the Hive, calling for the Queen to bring aid to the planet through cultural, technological, and resource based assistance in order to fight various perceived tragedies across the planet, such as illness, genetic anomalies and defects, poverty, starvation, crime, and mortality itself. The campaign stops short of calling for Hive annexation, as crowds cheer at the sight of orbiting hive ships and shuttles full of drones. So long as this operation is in effect, the hive may operate openly and in broad daylight, passing off the ill effects of many actions and operations as the actions of criminals or as reasons for the hive's intervention in the first place. Willful immigration and open parasite acceptance become relatively commonplace as the living bio-technology of the hive become ubiquitous and fashionable in the local culture. Removes all negative effects of Suspicion for the duration. Psionically sensitive individuals may become militant, if they are not already as their own suspicions are all but confirmed.

>All for the Hive: Through a mixture of shell companies, private investment firms, smuggling, and off-world bank fraud, the planet's various sectors of production are drained and directed to the Hive. Produce and metals are melted down to their component resources and teleported off world while credits are sent through various hidden smuggling routes and bank accounts, laundered and rerouted until it is deposited into legal and legitimate hive controlled accounts. So long as this operation is in effect, the hive has no upkeep, and brings in an income of resources based on the planet's resource stats and development level. Moderately increases Agitation and Suspicion.

[Hive Owned](7 Active Operations): The planet is overtly and legally recognized as being the property of the Hive Queen, and as such Hive policy is law. Espionage can still be performed upon non-hive populations on such a world, and such citizens may become suspicious of illicit activity by their new Hive government, or agitated at their Queen, however the odds of discovery and the repercussions for it are drastically reduced. An owned planet gains this status the moment it legally passes into the control of the Hive and does not require time to grow its network, as the Hive is free to establish intelligence networks overtly under the guise of maintenance and infrastructure works.

>Mother Knows Best: Media, entertainment, consumer goods, food, and all other aspects of citizen life is monitored and optimized for proper health while avoiding intrusions as much as possible. Drones and psionic relays are placed at strategic locations so as to anticipate and prevent accidents, crimes, and acute illness. Hive bio tech use is encouraged so as to mitigate problems caused by the inefficiencies of non-hive life, providing secondary hearts and optimized and redundant critical organs to much of the population. While the physical benefits of this campaign will not be fully realized for many years, the initial psychological effects is a drastic and permanent shift in public opinion among the populace as the Hive's rapidly growing social engineering programs convince the population that the Hive is only interested in what is best for the local populace, rapidly popularizing bio-technology and organic implants, including more invasive options such as symbiotic drone implantation, as the Hive shifts it's public image from all-conquering alien empire to a beloved adoptive step mother whose loving presence spans light-years. So long as this is maintained, the owned planet will 'leak' this cultural influence to other planets that maintain commercial and information trade through merchant traffic, corporate ventures, and joint research programs.

>Hover-Mom: Drone labor is offered freely to all who accept Hive rule as full citizens, and the implantation that such membership implies, rapidly expanding critical and luxury infrastructure and providing free welfare to any hive citizen who lack the expertise to perform tasks that hive drones are less efficient at than non-hive life. To the typical everyman, the planet becomes a post scarcity utopia free of work, rent, or tax, all under the ever-watchful and ever-present eyes of the Hive Queen. For as long as this is maintained, the percentage of the local population who are implanted rapidly increases up to a maximum determined by the population's overall culture and percentage of psionically resistant individuals. Maintaining Mother Knows Best can increase this max percentage by shifting local culture.

>It's because Mother Loves You: Local hive forces are directed at great effort to hunt down, identify, track, and in some cases secure psionically resistant individuals on the owned planet. The rate of discovery of such individuals is drastically increased, and when such individuals are found they are isolated without incident, however, the increased scrutiny for such individuals can be felt by as yet undiscovered psionically resistant individuals as an ever growing sense of total paranoia, greatly increasing the odds of them joining anti-Hive organizations, or forming them if none exist, and increasing the odds of such individuals taking potentially violent anti-hive actions.

Espionage Actions: A hive can take as many actions as it can afford at any given time, however each action consumes resources, agents, and possibly entire intelligence networks or more to perform, and come with inherent costs of discovery and failure. Actions require a minimum level of espionage on a planet, and some require one or more operations to be underway as well. An action takes a minimum of one day to perform, and always has some risk of failure involved, with the severity or the details surrounding such failure dependent on the type of action. A failed Action results in an increase in Agitation, while a Critical Failure causes the Action's potential Hive origin to be discovered, increasing both Agitation and Suspicion. Some Actions will increase Agitation or Suspicion even when successful.

Resources: Espionage Actions cost certain special resources which are obtained and spent outside of the Hive's typical logistical network, and are organized as such. Espionage resources are stored, obtained, and spent in large quantities and as such are organized and tracked in individual caches representing the minimum amount of resources needed for a given Action. Different resources offer bonuses to the outcomes of Actions, and more or higher quality resources may be allotted to an Action to offer a bonus, however the resources spent to reach the minimum required for an Action do not offer any such bonuses. An Action has a maximum number of additional resources that can be assigned to it equal to half the number of minimum required resources rounded up. For example, if an Action requires 1 or 2 Transports, it may receive a bonus from 1 additional transport, if the minimum is 3, it can have a maximum of 2, ect. Additional resources can be assigned regardless of what type the Action's cost requires in order to receive the desired bonus. Resources cannot be moved between planets except by use of Active Operations, and if the local espionage hive lacks the needed resources to perform an Action, it will attempt to obtain them automatically if its level of activity and Operations allow it to do so prior to initiating the Action.

Clone: A basic, flash-trained Hive-made Replicant, Hybrid, or Chimera. These agents are easily and cheaply replaceable, and an espionage hive will maintain a stockpile of ready to deploy clones at all times. A hive will constantly loose and replace clones during standard operations, and will expend them for most Actions. In the very unlikely event that a hive runs out of clones, its Espionage level determines the number of clones maintained as a standing force, and its capacity to make replacements.

Sleeper Agent: A Hive agent situated in an important position within the planet's infrastructure or corporate environment that allows immediate access to sensitive information and materials. Sleeper Agents offer a slow trickle of classified or sensitive information, and are burned upon use in an Action.

Elite Agent: An Elite Agent is a nigh-legendary individual capable of accomplishing tasks that would otherwise take entire platoons of armed troops and whole agencies of spies to accomplish. These individuals have proven themselves exceptional enough to be worthy of the Queen's direct attention. Elite Agents are rare and can only be recruited reliably from fully owned planets, but can be deployed to other worlds in order to assist in espionage activity. An Elite Agent's presence on a planet grants a bonus to the effectiveness of all Espionage activities, slowing down enemy counter intelligence, decreasing Agitation and Suspicion side effects of Operations, and decreasing Failure and Discovery risks of Actions. The effects of Elite Agents stack, but with diminishing returns, providing only 50% of the benefit of the previously deployed Elite Agent. If detected, Elite Agents will attempt to flee back to Hive space, and can be captured or killed. Elite Agents will gradually increase Suspicion on non-hive worlds, and gradually decrease Agitation on Hive owned worlds.

Credit Cache: A supply of the local currency or an acceptable variation of such in the form of a large stockpile of untraceable, unmarked notes, either in the form of cold, hard cash, pre-paid credit chips, or secure block-chain wallet.

Transports: Vehicles of a wide range of types and uses, transports are used to rapidly deploy or evacuate agents and resources during an Espionage Action. All Transports are able to provide a quick getaway, granting a bonus to avoiding detection during an Action, however, different kinds of Transports have additional effects.
	>Civilian Transport – Offering little in the way of protection or offense, a civilian transport is any vehicle that is widely available to the local population, as such, it causes little suspicion, decreasing suspicion caused by the Action, regardless of its success or failure.
	>Emergency Transport – A police vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency response vehicle, these Transports have the benefit of being able to disregard local traffic laws without reprisal, although they are not exactly subtle. Emergency Transports have double the bonus to avoiding detection.
	>Military Transport – Heavily armed and armored, military transports include tanks, armored carriers, troop gunships, or military cargo carriers. Such vehicles are heavy duty and capable of both defense and offense, increasing the odds of success, but also increasing suspicion.

Weapon Supply: A stockpile of weapons including both ranged and melee options, both overt and covert, from simple hand pistols or brass knuckles to heavy rail rifles and powered swords. Weapons give Hive agents the mettle they need to get the job done, increasing the Action's success rate, in addition to other effects.
	>Civilian Weapon Supply – A small box filled with a range of basic self-defense items used by both citizens for self defense and, more often, criminals in muggins or gang conflicts. Such weapons are often illicit to own without proper permits, but are otherwise commonplace and do not cause much concern with their use. Lowers the rate of suspicion increase the Action will cause.
	>Military Weapon Supply – Heavy armaments suited for a state sanctioned military organization, or especially well funded corporate security or paramilitary group. While few things can stand against such weapons, few people will consider their use to be normal gang activity. Odds of success is doubled, but agitation and suspicion will increase.

Equipment Supply: Armor, disguises, uniforms, or specialized gadgets, Equipment Supplies are stockpiles of non-weapon essentials needed for espionage work, allowing agents to get in and out of the AO cleanly and efficiently without leaving a trace. All Equipment lowers the suspicion increase caused by Actions, as well as other effects.
	>Civilian Equipment Supply: Remote Credit chip scanners, Fingerprint tracers, Iris lenses, glass cutters, climbing harnesses, or anything in-between, civilian equipment represents the tools of the trade for the typical, yet competent local crook, be it a con artist, burglar, or gang enforcer, allowing the Action to be done quickly, cleanly, and with little to no civil disruption. The rate of Agitation increase by the Action is lowered.
	>Professional Equipment: EVA suits, Radiation padding, specialized ID cards or uniforms, Professional Equipment is restricted and difficult or impossible for civilians to obtain outside of the involved profession, offering a veil of authority to any action being undertaken by the agents, allowing them to work without any questions being asked as everyone who sees them assumes they belong where they are. Rate of suspicion increase from the Action is lowered.
	>Military Equipment: Ballistic armor, combat ready move-assists, combat visors, military equipment offers all the gear needed to survive a protracted firefight, drastically boosting agent survivability in the field, but such gear is neigh impossible for the average citizen to obtain, and is clearly out of place anywhere near a civilian. Increases the Action's success rate, but increases suspicion and agitation.

>Black Market Purchase: Requires Beggars and Taidarens to be active
>Costs: Special
>Failure risk: Very Low
>Discovery risk: Very Low
Controlled taidaren junk merchants and black market contacts are utilized to acquire specific illicit goods. Credit caches can be exchanged to buy or sell supplies at a rate of 1 cache for civilian grade, 2 for professional, 3 for military. There is a small risk of the deal being a set-up, or otherwise going poorly. Critical success means the deal went bad and the operatives obtained the desired materials and was able to keep the intended payment. Critical failure means the deal went bad and the operative lost both.

>Smash and Grab: Requires one of the following to be active, Cults and Collaborators, Beggars and Taidarens, Cabals and Cartels
Costs: at least 5 clones, 1 day.
Failure risk: Low
Discovery risk: Very Low
A clone or small team of clones are dispatched to locate a method by which to gain illicit resources. While blunt and inefficient, your clones can quickly bring in a credit cache, as well as one civilian grade supply selected prior to launching the Action. While an obstacle as simple as an armed guard may lead to failure, the clones are not equipped or skilled in a way that would lead to any local authorities considering the crime to be anything more than a typical burglary or convenience store hold-up to fuel the drug habits of local criminals.

>Elimination: Requires one of the following to be active, Cults and Collaborators, Beggars and Taidarens, Cabals and Cartels
Costs: 1 Clone, 1 cache of credits, 1 civilian grade weapon supply, 1 Civilian grade transport, 1-3 days.
Failure risk: Very Low
Discovery risk: Medium
A specific low ranking individual that lacks the importance or wealth for personal security such as local politicians, medical officials, witnesses to hive activity, news reporters, law enforcement officers and criminals is targeted for elimination. A single clone is recruited from its cover life and equipped with a set of commonly found weapons and equipment. The clone will then attack and kill the target as quickly and efficiently as possible before self-destructing, possibly in the process of the attack itself. If the target survives the first attempt, the clone will delay self-destructing until either the target or the clone is dead. The death of the individual will result in some level of upheaval in the local community and may mildly and temporarily increase the likelihood of discovery of ongoing operations on the planet, but the low level of importance of the target will keep any blow back confined to the local city, county, or district in which the individual lived and worked. There is a small chance an investigation into the death may lead to the implications of the hive's intelligence network's existence. Temporarily increases Agitation and Suspicion slightly.

>Recruitment: Requires either Cults and Collaborators or Beggars and Taidarens to be active
Costs: 5 clones, 2 caches of credits, 1 civilian grade transport, 1-3 days
Failure risk: Low
Discovery risk: Medium
The local hive targets an individual within a strategically advantageous position to be recruited as an agent of the hive. A team of clones is recruited from their cover lives, utilizing the hive's intelligence network to stalk and intercept the target. Once isolated, the target is abducted and implanted with a parasite before being returned to the individual's place of residence. All memory of the incident is removed, and the individual continues their work as normal, but halts any activities that would be detrimental to the hive, and becomes a Sleeper Agent capable of being activated at a moment's notice.

>Heist: Requires either Cults and Collaborators or Cabals and Cartels to be active
Costs: 11 clones, 1 Professional grade equipment supply, 1 Emergency grade transport, 2-5 days
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: Medium
A crack team of flash-trained specialist hive agents are dispatched to steal from a high value target. The resources gathered depends on the target, granting a choice of either 5 credit caches, 3 Civilian Grade supplies, 2 Professional Grade supplies, or 1 Military grade supply.

>Inventory Disruption: Requires Cults and Collaborators to be active
Costs: 1 sleeper agent
Failure risk: Low
Discovery risk: High
A Hive agent implanted within local infrastructure or corporate facilities makes a deliberate oversight when updating the inventory and shipping manifests for local logistic networks, resulting in a sizable amount of specialized equipment being shipped to the wrong location, where it is stolen by 'unknown' individuals. The oversight is unlikely to go unnoticed for long, and will likely result in the termination of the agent in question, necessitating the agent's extraction from its cover life shortly after. Grants 2 Professional Grade Equipment or Emergency Grade Transport for free, or 1 Military Grade supply at the cost of additional Agitation and an increased risk of Detection.

>Infest: Requires Currency and Capital to be active
Costs: 3 credit caches, 2-3 days
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: Low
An egg layer is secured aboard a charter cargo vessel and is smuggled off world. Target 1 non-Hive planet that has trade contact with the local planet, if successful, the target planet gains a Concealed Hive.

>Assassinate: Requires a minimum of Silent Manipulation
Costs: 8 clones, 4 caches of credits, 2 civilian grade transport, 1 military grade weapon supply, 1 military grade equipment supply, 3-5 days
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: High
A specific high ranking figure, such as a global politician, a major cultural figure of planetary fame, a news reporter for a major planet wide network or larger, military officials, and visiting diplomatic dignitaries, is targeted for assassination. A specialized team of clones is created and outfitted with military grade equipment selected and customized for this particular target. Time and resources are required to carefully calculate every possible eventuality, stalking the target and the target's body guards relentlessly until an opening can be found. Because of the public nature of the target's life, and the level of security present, the assassination cannot easily be made to seem natural and will inevitably cause some level of planet wide upheaval, as well as a major investigation. Once the mission is complete, the clone team will attempt to destroy all evidence, and will self destruct. Temporarily increases Agitation and Suspicion moderately.

>Sabotage: Requires Cults and Collaborators or Cabals and Cartels to be active
Costs: at least 1 sleeper agent (gained from Recruitment or relevant Operation) which is burned upon expenditure.
Failure risk: Low
Discovery risk: Medium
A sleeper agent or cell of agents are activated in a relevant industry or office and given orders to perform acts of sabotage. These acts can vary from permitting a Theseus instance access to sensitive networks, deleting files such as police records or collected evidence of hive activity, deliberate acts of incompetence to sow discord, or the direct damaging of local infrastructure. An activated sleeper agent can only sabotage things directly relevant to the agent's field of employment. A law enforcement officer may erase evidence or create legal technicalities in paperwork to stall an investigation, a maintenance worker may damage power lines or cut off water services to a city, ect. Such acts will result in the agent's immediate termination from their position, preventing any future use, as such, any parasites are removed. If the agent is a clone, it will self-destruct in an appropriate manner to avoid casting suspicion on the hive. Increases Agitation slightly, and decreases Suspicion moderately.

>Prison Break: Requires Cults and Collaborators or Cabals and Cartels
Costs: 1 Sleeper Agent, 1 Elite Agent, 20 clones, 3 Credit Caches, 2 Military grade transports, 1 Military grade weapon supply, 1 Military grade equipment supply
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: High
The worst has come to pass, Hive assets have been captured alive and are being held for interrogation, and when that inevitably fails, most likely study and dissection. This cannot be allowed to come to pass, and so the Queen has sent one of her favored to oversee a rescue operation personally, and failing that, destroy that which was captured. Stealth is optional for this mission, the only priority is to keep Hive secrets from falling into the hands of the single-minded. Prisoners or captured Hive assets on the planet are freed or terminated. Drastically increases Suspicion and moderately increases Agitation on the planet. The Elite Agent takes to ground after the operation, becoming unavailable for the next 1-3 days before reappearing in Hive space with a full report.

>Blackmail: Requires Proxy Control
Costs: 3 clones, 4 Credit Caches
Failure risk: Low
Discovery risk: Medium
incriminating or embarrassing information, either real or manufactured, is discreetly given to the target in order to force an individual who is otherwise impossible or difficult to compromise, or is in a position where parasite discovery is high to become a Hive agent. If the Action fails, a less effective version of the Scandal Action is activated for free against the target, if the Action succeeds, the blackmailed individual acts as a Sleeper Agent and begins passing regular intelligence reports to the hive. Any action using this Sleeper Agent will have an increased risk of discovery, but require no material costs beyond the blackmailed Sleeper Agent.

>Scandal: Requires One in the Hive to be active
Costs: 5 Sleeper Agents, 5 Credit Caches
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: High
A series of fabricated reports, doctored photos, and paid or implanted false witnesses weave a sordid tale to slander the name and reputation of an individual, organization, or institution on the local planet, eroding popular support and public trust in the target. Even if discovered, the masses quickly devolve into partisan bickering, backing whichever side their biases best match to as Hive agents and assets focus on stoking the argument itself until it has escalated beyond the scope of ever being hopped to be debunked successfully. Is less effective on incumbent politicians.

>Conspiracy: Requires at least Proxy Control
Costs: 1 Sleeper Agent, 15 clones, 3 Credit Caches, 1 Professional Grade Equipment supply, 1 Military Grade Weapon supply, 1 Emergency Grade Transport, 1-8 days
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: Low
Hive agents rapidly move in and establish covert contact with an individual or group who knows too much, or is on the brink of discovering Hive activity, and the agents attempt to shut down the investigation through a combination of brute threats, falsifying membership of elite government organizations, destruction of collected evidence, and dedicated gas lighting of the investigators until the investigation is halted or rendered harmless.

>False Flag: Requires at least Proxy Control
Costs: 10 clones, 1 Military Grade Transport, 1 Military Grade Weapon supply, 1 Military Grade Equipment supply
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: Medium
Hive agents perform a decoy attack against a component of local infrastructure seemingly related to the true target of an otherwise unrelated simultaneous Action or a recently failed or discovered Action. If successful, all blow-back from this and the connected Action will be targeted towards a new faction of your choice. This Action requires another Action to be taken simultaneously with it, or an Action to have failed or been discovered within the past day.

>Deep Strike: Requires at least Proxy Control
Costs: 25 clones, 2 Military Grade Transports, 2 Military Grade Weapon supplies, 1 Military Grade Equipment supply
Failure risk: Very Low
Discovery risk: Very High
A strike team of combat clones is equipped with high end military tech and deployed against the local critical infrastructure, crippling key aspects of the planet's defense systems. The Action takes effect instantly, as a team of clones immediately assault local military organizational structures, early warning systems, and logistical networks. Once the strike is over, the planet will be unable to utilize anti-orbital weapon defenses and be blinded to any orbital activity for the next 1-3 days, offering the perfect moment for either physical military conquest, or to trigger a local rebellion.

>Adopt!: Requires A World for Mother to be finished
Costs: Hive fleet assets must be deployed to the planet for the duration, 5-10 days
Failure risk: High
Discovery risk: Very High
The planet rebels against its current masters and its population takes to the streets in violent riots culminating in either a planet wide vote on secession or violent revolution. Hive agents and psionic manipulator drones work constantly to maintain an extreme level of discontent. The higher the planet's Agitation and the lower the Suspicion score is, the greater the odds of success. By popular demand of the local population, a Hive force is deployed in orbit to provide medical support to the growing and rapidly spreading unrest. Once over, if successful, the planet secedes from its current interstellar government and petitions the Hive for annexation. If accepted, the planet becomes owned by the Hive. The previous owner may not officially accept the secession, but the population is firmly against their rule, making continued occupation all but impossible. If the Action fails, the local espionage Hive is reduced to level 1 instantly and the planet's suspicion is greatly increased, and anti-Hive sentiment runs rampant across the local political landscape. If discovered, counter-revolutionaries will form a resistance movement against Hive occupation, forming either a volunteer militia if the Action was a failure, or rebellious terror cells if the Action was a success.

Counter-Intelligence Actions
These Actions are available only on planets fully owned by the Hive. Because the Hive already owns all infrastructure on the planet, they have no Resource costs.

>Media Blitz: Requires Mother Knows Best to be active
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: Low
Speakers, loyal reporters and anchors, and various emergency announcement services are organized to perform a carefully executed information war against a currently unfolding scandal against the Hive or its allies, mitigating the smear efforts of any enemy spy network attempts at creating a scandal on the planet, and preventing it from spreading any further. Failure will result in the Scandal becoming amplified by the denials resulting in a Streisand Effect cascade. A success will effectively debunk the scandalous claims, inoculating the populace against believing in further similar claims and making future Scandal Actions by enemy spy networks more difficult.

>Dream-works: Requires Hover-Mom to be active
Failure risk: Very Low
Discovery risk: Low
The imagination of countless idle layabouts subsisting off of the Hive is effectively weaponized. Sleeping Hive Citizens connected to the Hive network have their minds linked to thinker concerts during REM sleep, allowing your research divisions to take full advantage of the creativity of the subconscious minds of the single-minded within your care. While the process is somewhat taxing, resulting in moderately poorer sleep than usual, it can serve as an effective method of giving your thinkers the small epiphany needed to get them out of their rut and back on schedule. Grants three additional research rolls to the research topic that rolled the lowest the previous day, but increases the range on which critical failures can occur and increases their severity. Regular use will cause exponential increases in Agitation the more this Action is used in rapid succession.

>Mother's Favored: Requires Hover-Mom or Mother Knows Best to be active
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: None
A brief, frenzied recruitment drive is held in an effort to find the best, brightest, and most loyal Hive Citizens on the planet. Such individuals are given advanced Hive cybernetics to suit their preferences and needs, extensive training, and are heralded as shining examples of the best the local populace has to offer. Through advanced implants, genetic alterations, and both mental flash-training and rigorous physical training regiments, these individuals become Elite Hive Agents loyal and devoted to their new Queen Mother. 1 d10 new Elite Hive Agents are recruited with random specializations. There is a small chance some of them will be scientists, while the rest become devoted counter-intelligence operatives on the local planet serving as the Hive's own de facto secret police. Once recruited, Elite Agents maintain some level of independence within the Hive, allowing them to follow their intuition and training to help increase the overall security of the Hive's non-hive population centers. Elite Agents can be redeployed as needed anywhere in Hive space, as well as sent outside of Hive space to boost the activity of Espionage Hives, however by default they will move of their own volition to locations in Hive space where they believe they are most useful. All Elite Agents left to their own devices will independently perform Investigation Actions for free and have a chance of discovering enemy or criminal activity on worlds they are deployed on each day, and increase the failure rate and discovery chance of any and all enemy or criminal activities. The presence of an Elite Agent on a planet gradually reduces Agitation slightly on Owned planets, and increases Suspicion on non-owned planets.

>Mind-lock: Requires It's because Mother Loves You to be active
Failure risk: Medium
Discovery risk: Medium
A rapid response team of psionic drones and relays are deployed across the planet in a wide ranging and detailed sweep of the population and their thoughts in an effort to locate and isolate as many potential threats as possible, starting with already discovered threats and then rapidly scanning the rest of the planet. Already discovered threats and any nearby witnesses who show potential to be obstructionist will suffer a momentary psionic paralysis as a retrieval team is deployed to extract the potentially threatening individuals. Such threats include individuals or members of groups showing signs of Void corruption or devotion, psionic resistance, inclinations to violence, mental illness curable by Hive technology, criminal networks, and foreign intelligence networks. In addition to rounding up members of already known organizations and known individuals, there is a moderate chance that any unknown individuals or organizations will be discovered as well.

>Investigation: Requires full ownership
Failure risk: Special
Discovery risk: None
The Queen orders a full investigation of an event believed to be caused by enemy espionage or organized criminal activity beyond the scope and purview of local law enforcement. Publicly, speakers are deployed across the planet to all areas deemed likely to hold clues or potential suspects and politely ask for the local population's assistance and any information that may be useful, performing psionic reading on any willing volunteers. Discretely, the increased presence of psionic relays in the area is used to continuously track the surface thoughts and locations of all potential suspects and known relations. This Action begins an investigation that is ongoing into the nature of a potential enemy espionage Action that was discovered. Until it either fails naturally or by enemy Espionage Actions, is stopped, or succeeds it will increase the Discovery risk of all enemy Actions on this planet. If it succeeds an enemy Espionage or criminal network is revealed. There is a chance the event being investigated is a false lead, and will result in an eventual failure. Research rolls can be diverted to an investigation to speed it up and increase its success rate, including rolls gained from Dream-Works.