The backstory of Riviera in Neuromancer who has a sexual fetish out of betrayal.James Mowry, the hero of Eric Frank Russell's Wasp (1957), is sent down alone to an alien planet to stir up as much trouble as he possibly can.In their final act on Bothawui, they go one step further, arranging for the planetary shields to be shut down, and infiltrating members onto selected parts of the multi-species fleet in orbit to incite an all-out war by bombarding the planet. In addition to starting riots and otherwise stirring up trouble, they use high-tech stealth blasters and redirection crystals to make it appear that planetary forces (and in one case, Han Solo) are shooting protesters dead. In the Hand of Thrawn duology, this is the role of "Vengeance", supposedly a grassroots organization of citizens outraged at the political crises du jour, but actually an Imperial infiltration team of maybe a dozen guys, posing as a massive organization.Nom Anor from the New Jedi Order series does this several times in different disguises, for the goal of weakening the galaxy for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.Especially effective because he is, and does. Sten incites rebellion on Vulcan by fulfilling the Mig folk story of "one of their own" who will get out, return, and lead them to freedom. Sten: Mercury Corps uses this as a matter of course.Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: Gwen is falsely accused of being one. The State Counsellor novel contains enough of these to make Erast Fandorin swear he'll never take political cases again.In Komarr, frustrated by the inherently reactionary nature of his job as an Imperial Auditor, Miles briefly ponders the probability of convincing the Emperor to deploy an Auditor Provocateur.In A Civil Campaign: Byerly is an ImpSec agent tasked with observing the politics surrounding Lord Dono's claim to the countship, who chooses to actively encourage the rather extreme shenanigans Dono's rival attempts.Apparently the idea is to create riots which will justify the deployment of a police helicopter gunship with advanced surveillance capabilities. When looking through the diary of a councilwoman who was murdered, the police note a reference to "strangers in the ghetto, stirring up trouble". Implied with the Government Conspiracy behind the titular helicopter. The reason it's the former and not the latter is the troops on the ground had no idea they were just cannon fodder for Palpatine's goals and the Separatist cause was never meant to succeed. Count Dooku is sent to stir up the galaxy against Chancellor Palpatine in order to make it so the latter can justify seizing more power.
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