Send SpyGuy¶
A SpyGuy is a watcher you post on another planet. He is not one of your agents: sending him spends no agent, he cannot be caught, and he brings back no figures for the Spy Database. What he does is send word home the moment his hosts turn something on your planet.
Send him from InterPlanetary Operations, under Special Operations.
What he costs¶
Gold, by the day, and the whole stay is paid up front. The daily rate is drawn from the size of your own planet — every region every realm here holds — so a crowded planet pays more for the same man. The rate is quoted before you pick a target, since it is the same wherever you send him.
You choose how long he stays, up to fifteen days or as many days as your gold covers, whichever runs out first.
What he reports¶
Two things, and both arrive as planetary news where everyone here can read them:
- a group attack being assembled against this planet, or against one realm on it, with the hours left before it leaves
- a Clingy Annihilator being built for us — when the work starts, when the funding is complete, and if it is stood down again
He also reports whatever is already under way the day he arrives, so a man sent late is not wasted.
Why it matters¶
A weapon still on the ground is the builders' own business: nobody tells you it exists. You learn of it when it launches — and by then it is two days out with only your jets between it and your regions. A SpyGuy on the right planet buys you the days you need to raise them.
The planet you are watching is told nothing. There is no discovery, no trial, and no execution; when the days you paid for run out, your man simply comes home.
Strategy¶
Post him where the threat is, not where the grudge is. The planet that just lost a battle to you is the one assembling the answer, and the rate is the same whether you watch a rival or a neighbour you trust.
A short stay renewed is worth more than one long stay bought early: the days run whether anything happens or not.