Commercial Espionage: Idea(s) for Trade and Espionage

A Call for White Collar Cutthroats

With the espionage expansion coming in the near future, I had some ideas on how these mechanics could integrate with trading companies and trading. I liked how espionage was implemented with Legend, but it did have a lack of involvement with the trading networks of the Aurigan empires. With ES2's Trading Companies, I feel like there is a way to add some depth to both the companies and the new espionage mechanics. 

For the sake of this idea, I'm going to (hopefully correctly) assume that the espionage mechanics will work like they did in Endless Legend. I.e.:
---
A (spare) hero is chosen by the player or A.I. to infiltrate an enemy empire as a spy, with the use of influence.
After having infiltrated the target for a number of turns, the spy can then engage in a certain number of actions, with actions becoming more powerful the longer they've infiltrated the target.
---

Commercial Scheming

I propose having a similar ability to infiltrate individual Trading Companies, perhaps locked behind a tech beyond regular system/empire infiltration. "Inter-Galactic Industrial Espionage," or something similar.
At the cost of influence (and/or dust with the Lumeris), an empire can deploy a spy into a Trading Company. Depending on your affiliation with the owning empire, the overarching purpose (Allignment) of the spy's presence can differ.

Sabotage and Protection

Negative affinity actions, "fiscal and physical" sabotage (FP sabotage), are what you would expect. An empire sends a spy to infiltrate a friendly or enemy company, with the spy's level of infiltration increasing the longer they are inside the company. As their infiltration level increases, more powerful sabotage options become available. Additionally, certain more powerful sabotage actions would only be able to be undertaken if the spy has infiltrated the company HQ itself, not the subsidary. However, infiltrating a subsidary, while presenting you with less options for sabotage, is relatively safer. 

The following are just a few ideas of FP sabotage.

Good affinity deployments are essentially sending your spies to protect your companies or those of your friends. Protecting a company is simply done from assigning a spy to a friendly company's HQ, which will cover both the HQ and the subsidiary (albiet with sibsidiary protection being lower. Risk vs. reward for the saboteur.)

Protecting friendly companies have the benefit of protecting their investments and thus your trade Dust income, as well as providing an opportunity to earn positive diplomatic pressure toward the protected company's empire. For example, if your spy defended a company by thwarting FP sabotage attempts, you would gain an increment of 3-6 pressure. Additionally, if the enemy spy is wounded or gravely wounded in the attempt, an additional increment of 2-4 pressure would be awarded.  Protect your friends and and get rewarded with continued Dust income, and a potential demand request, with enough pressure. Plus, with a wounded target comes an easily identified scheming empire. Win-win. 

Similar pressure rewards would be given vs. an enemy empire if their spy is captured instead of escaping with or without wounds. Use your newly acquired asset to solict tech or system exchanges for their poor excuse of a corporate spy. Or potentially have them work for you as a hero if they're essentially given a Burn Notice*.

*Enemy Empire stops caring about them, Burn Notice is not a mechanic in this idea.

Deploying Commercial Spies

Deploying spies to friendly and enemy commercial targets can be done via two ways.
1. Through another menu (like Legends did with the Shadows expansion.)
2. Through the "Trade Scan" view from pressing the [Space Bar]. This reduces the clutter of the galaxy view.

Just remember that you would only infilitrate a known company location. If your target has been destroyed/moved to another system, you will need to find it again.
It would also be nice to get a little faction flavor with an orbiting HQ or subsidary station added to the system; Similar to a pirate base in a system. These stations would be styled to how the faction would make it.

Audits: The Fiscal Round-up

If you suspect something is happening in your company, but you can't spare a governor or a fleet admiral, it may be time to send the suits in for an Audit. Similar to Round-ups in Legends, Audits are how you can potentially take control of the situation; Protection is passive, while an Audit is on your terms. Audits have a baseline percentage of effectiveness that can either be augmented with hero skills, or can be increased with researching new technologies ("Quantum Computational Forensics"). Audit effectiveness is seperate per company, meaning any book cooking is restricted to that company alone, and Audit effectiveness by proxy. Audits cost Influence or Dust for the Lumeris.

What happens if an Audit is successful? Well, your new friend has been made and has to escape. Ratios willing, your Audit security team captures the perp without tipping them off. Otherwise, they may wound and capture, or wound the target with them escaping back to friendly space. Either way, the threat is removed. 

Additionally, with a completed audit comes the removal of any false data recieved from a Book Cooking. Unless the spy is willing to commit
 

Conclusion

I feel that Trading Companies are fun to develop but have little depth other than identifying system values and building locations, and weighing which company to buy a freighter for. With an integration of espionage mechanics, I think Trading Companies would have a much greater feeling of depth and complexity. Military action isn't the only threat to commercial juggernauts anymore.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this suggestion. Comments, criticisms, or raves welcome. Have any idea for commercial sabotage options?