Discussion Main / BluffingTheAdvanceScout

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• Inverted in one short story where aliens discover the remains of a primitive human spacecraft drifting in interstellar space and determine its origin point was Earth. A recon team is sent to assess humanity as a potential new acquisition for their empire and discovers a peaceful, not very technologically advanced species or threatening species that has apparently pulled back from advanced technology and is certainly no threat. Then they uncover a secret bunker full of highly advanced and technologically superior human military equipment. The human they've captured (who turns around and captures them) reveals that the derelict spacecraft they found was sent out as bait used to see what they would do, the recon team has been under observation the entire time to evaluate the aliens' psychology and capabilities, and having decided that having such a bunch of imperialist assholes as neighbors isn't acceptable, the human fleet is about to pay a visit to their homeworld.

An example should include enough information for a reader to be able to track down the source and see it for themselves if they're interested. This example should not be re-added unless someone can add the title (and preferably also the author) of the story it's talking about.

Why is this "Bluffing the Advance Scout"? All scouts come in advance. It could just be "Bluffing the Scout."

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Why is this relegated to sci-fi, may I ask? I can think of examples of this in stories set in antiquity.

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