Questions tagged [espionage]

For questions about the practice of spying or otherwise obtaining information in secret.

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7 answers
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How does the Society of the Technologically Anonymous hide its origins and operations?

In the very near future, we find out about a secret society whose sole purpose is to raise children who have absolutely no online presence. They are moving to a mysterious "phase 2" of their ...
Michael Stachowsky's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
146 views

How to conduct espionage in countries of different races?

Related to this, Main Character is running a multi-racial nation, whose members are persecuted by the religious authority of the humans of that world. And human nations--read Kingdoms and Empires--...
Faito Dayo's user avatar
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8 votes
7 answers
599 views

Magnesium Sword as Non-Magical Flaming Swords

So I understand a lot of world builders and aspiring fiction writers have often tried to be creative with weapons and get shutdown for various reasons of impracticality or inferiority to steel. I'm ...
Fantasy Science's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
173 views

Why would medieval sleeper agents gather in one place? [closed]

I am making a system of sleeper agents that work to support an invasion. This all takes place in a late-medieval Chinese-inspired setting, on a large island nation (let's say "Keiza") that ...
KeizerHarm's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Remote listening device inside human ear and powered by the body

Some related (but not the same) questions: Listening (eavesdropping) device that can be put into victim's ear? (which is closed because of the need to focus) Microphone implanted in and powered by ...
user90578's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
91 views

What are the pros and cons of a spy humanoid robot of these heights? which height will have the most advantages?

In my story, they have humanoid robots (humanoid for a reason in the story, but no need to write it here) living with humans, so one of the humanoid robots are designed for spying/information ...
Khalid's user avatar
  • 543
12 votes
13 answers
2k views

In a world of groovy super spies, how would a spy cross a ravine?

I'm developing an alternate Earth where super spies exist. Men and women of extraordinary skill with extraordinary gadgets who act in extraordinary ways to protect the proverbial "King and ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 114k
-3 votes
1 answer
110 views

I want an intelligence agency without modern means (UPDATED) [duplicate]

Short. Got it. Thank you to all those who provided answers before. Closed question. Points there will influence if your answer is helpful or not. I Want to make an intelligence agency in a fictional ...
Seallussus's user avatar
  • 8,252
8 votes
7 answers
858 views

I want an intelligence agency without modern means

Short. Got it. Thank you to all those who provided answers before and explained how to fix the problem in the comments as well. I Want to make an intelligence agency in a fictional setting that only ...
Seallussus's user avatar
  • 8,252
-1 votes
2 answers
129 views

How to track a kidnapper's phone [closed]

I'm writing a novel, in which one of my characters is kidnapped. Fortunately for her, her kidnappers aren't extremely good at the whole kidnapping thing. She manages to gain access to one of their ...
cal's user avatar
  • 1,123
1 vote
1 answer
87 views

How valuable and effective are spies and covert operations? [closed]

So this is a fairly abstract question, as it is not really specific to a single setting, but how valuable are intelligence gathering and covert operations conducted by intelligence agencies in terms ...
Adam Reynolds's user avatar
7 votes
6 answers
283 views

How would a small walled civilization be able to keep its secrets from neighboring powers?

Let's say we have a small civilization that built a wall (Great Wall of China as an example, but with no open sections, all contiguous, besides gated castles) of 300 miles all around their country, ...
R B Eryth's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
95 views

Why would a country be involuntarily involved in stealing prototype weapons of another allied one? [closed]

I want to create a spy story but I lack political or military knowledge to build a solid plot. France discovers that the prototype of one of his last torpedoes, F21 « Artémis », has been stolen while ...
Revolucion for Monica's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
352 views

How can spies and whistleblowers protect themselves from a government that wants to silence them?

When it comes to an angry government the ending can be: Acute Radiation Sickness (FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko) imprisonment (whistleblower Chelsea Manning) 'car accidents' (journalist Serena ...
user's user avatar
  • 501
2 votes
3 answers
121 views

Shooting all flying creatures in fear of spying drones [closed]

Spying technology is getting more sophisticated. Drones as we know them are obsolete. Robots appearing as living creatures are becoming science fact. First, robotic birds, then robotic insects. They ...
Christmas Snow's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
252 views

Which method would be most effective for a medieval insurgent group to organize their hideouts? [closed]

Exposition: This story takes place in a fictional world set in medieval-esque times, where shapeshifters exist in the sense that they have one human and one animal form. In a kingdom called Caelus, ...
Maddie's user avatar
  • 63
0 votes
1 answer
128 views

How does my super spy build his network? [closed]

It is a fairly common trope to have a "master spy" who feeds information to people. She or he gathers this information from an unspecified army of "birds" or "sparrows" or "eyes-and-ears" or whatever ...
CaM's user avatar
  • 13.6k
0 votes
2 answers
184 views

What social norms would a dog metamorphosised into a human struggle to follow most? [closed]

Say that a Flowerew (a wolf which turns into a human on the full moon) is pretending to be human during their human phase. Or that a kitsune who has been a fox for their life so far is trying their ...
C. R. Yasuo's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
288 views

Can a group of people be trained to look and act identically so that a computer could not tell them apart?

Modern day image recognition is getting pretty sophisticated, such that people can be easily identified by cameras and automated systems. If I recall correctly, even the way a person walks can help ID ...
mrfolkblues's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
259 views

What precautions would a space navy crew take when co-operating with an enemy android?

After a politically destabilizing incident that could lead to a regional war, a sentient android from a foreign government has offered to help the navy track down a space pirate turned fanatical ...
wetcircuit's user avatar
  • 9,437
5 votes
2 answers
483 views

Can you remove the scent from a person?

I was wondering if it is possible to make someone scentless for life with modern technology. Requirements The individual's appearance must remain normal enough that they could walk down a street ...
Foxy's user avatar
  • 596
73 votes
19 answers
18k views

How to keep a military technology secret while using it?

We are situated in an scenario like the Terran cold war in the 1980 era. I am the omnipotent dictator ahem.. president of the "good" side. Recently my research team completed some breakthrough in a ...
Martin's user avatar
  • 869
19 votes
8 answers
3k views

Human echolocation for spies. What sound to use?

There are reports of blind people being able to develop an echolocation ability, by listening to the echo of sounds emitted by them. Since this ability is pretty handy for spies and soldiers, the ...
L.Dutch's user avatar
  • 272k
0 votes
8 answers
469 views

How to find the man who isn't there?

"As I was going up the stair I met a man who wasn't there! He wasn't there again today, Oh how I wish he'd go away" Antigonish by William Hughes Meams Paul Billson makes his living in ...
user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
407 views

How to hide ocean Fleet Construction at dawn of Industrial Age? [closed]

Setting Pseudo-fantasy medieval setting at the dawn of industrialization. Gun powder is now a secret. The first ships with black powder weapons in the world are being built several days upriver of a ...
Overthinks's user avatar
14 votes
17 answers
4k views

Attack Vectors for Supply Chain Sabotage

There's two opposing forces acting against each other in a covert intelligence war. The names here are substituted to protect myself. The United States of Eagle - High technology, overtly bound by ...
user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
1k views

What skills does a spy need? [closed]

The story is set at a facitiy to train future agents. There is a group of new trainees, that have to be tested selected to either: "Fail" (they failed a test and are no longer able to participate) or ...
Frezzley's user avatar
  • 343
37 votes
12 answers
7k views

Super Spies Reality Check

It's a common trope that during the Cold War (and afterwards) America, the UK, the USSR, and sometimes nations beyond these developed super spies, capable of acts of espionage, sabotage, and direct ...
Ranger's user avatar
  • 17.5k
4 votes
5 answers
313 views

Keeping National Ignorance Out Of Other National Intelligence

Planet A has alien species A. A, before becoming spaceborn stumbles upon several factors and pieces of technology from another (long dead) alien species B. A attempts to reverse engineer B's ...
Ranger's user avatar
  • 17.5k
21 votes
26 answers
5k views

Murder in the Age of Pervasive Surveillance

It's a few years from now, and someone needs killing at a remote secure facility, where a dangerous AI is being developed by a terror organization hiding behind a respectable corporate front, which ...
Serban Tanasa's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
237 views

Intelligence Agency Cooporation during high cold war

Now imagine a world where they did land on the moon just a year ago (for real!), and we enter 1970 and heading for the less pleasureful high time of the cold war. But suddenly, a POD (Point of... ...
Confused Merlin's user avatar