Shiloh’s Shadow

Synopsis by Anonymous

“Project Shadow” is the name of a top-secret government project in which the government is aiming to duplicate human instinct and reflex by taking an individuals mind and replicating neural pathways and transferring them to an Ai host. This host is called the Shadow. The Shadow mimics human behavior and instinct more realistically than any AI ever programmed. Combined with state of the art advances in Robotics and muscle/skin synthetics, a Shadow can duplicate the behavior of a human being so well that first-class doctors and therapist cannot tell the difference.

In the year 2148, the Shadow program embarked full-force in testing. Despite many years of failure and mistakes, recent leaps in technology made “Project Shadow” a success. Fully funded by both the US and Chinese governments, the project continued for 6 years in the testing phase.

In the many years of testing, scientist got the “ok” to conduct test on “Project Shadow” in the open world. The Shadows were released into cities as civilians, programmed to operate in specific ways individually. Some were programmed to be parents, some fast food cashiers, and some posed as government officials. The test was a success, as all shadows performed perfectly, and reported back when they were programmed to.

Upon hearing of the overwhelming success of the testing phase, the government decided to move “Project Shadow” in a new direction: warfare. By using Shadows as units in war, scientists were able to program killing machines with limited emotions, but with top-notch reflexes and decision-making abilities. They were able to create machines that followed orders, but without the emotional setback of human beings.

Due to the nature of the programming involved in creating a Shadow, in order to give each Shadow a unique personality, each one required a different human counterpart to use for giving specific and personal patterns. These donors were volunteers specifically chosen by therapist and nutritionist, and were usually members of the armed forces, although some civilians were contacted for donation as well. The Shadows were modeled after their donors in every way physically, so the Shadow was virtually no different from their human counterparts.

Once a donor has been accepted into “Project Shadow”, their body is put into liquid stasis, which keeps their body in hibernation until the Shadow has performed his or her tasks. Once the Shadow had performed the duty, the Shadow was decommissioned, and destroyed. Once destroyed, the donor is taken out of stasis, the donor has memories implanted into his mind, simulating however long the donor had been in stasis. All memory of the project is wiped from their conscious, and they go through rigorous therapy sessions to further implement the new memories that they have received. Once the donor is convinced that these memories are real, the donor is released back into society.

“Project Shadow” remained top secret and classified. Only those directly involved with the project were allowed to know anything about it: scientist, programmers, therapist, nutritionist, and the President of the United States and China. The entire project took place in an underground complex in Beijing, China, in the Tianmo Desert. The teams of “Project Shadow” were all transported to the complex at once, and no one entered or left once the project was underway. The complex was fully furnished for living, with restaurants and living quarters for all of the teams. The chefs and assistance never knew the nature of the experiments going on; they all lived separately, and never communicated with each other.

The year is now 2162. “Project Shadow” has been secretly using Shadow units for government warfare for 6 years. An entire war was fought and won by the US government against Russia in 2159. Both the US and Chinese governments have hundreds of active Shadow Units performing top secret missions and operations all over the world, as well as Shadow units working on the Universal Space Station, a space station in construction by the World Alliance. There were also Shadow Units impersonating high-ranking government officials in both governments. For 14 years, the project was a worldwide success, operating with green lights across the board…until now.

Shiloh Hall. Age 25, Caucasian. Served 4 years in the US Marine Core. Growing up in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Shiloh was the only son of Mary and Donald Hall. He joined the JROTC program in high school, graduating top of his class. Upon graduating at age 18, Shiloh waited for 2 years before joining the Marine Core, due to his father’s illness, Parkinson’s disease. His father died when Shiloh was age 20, and Shiloh joined the Marine Core soon after. Shiloh was honorably discharged from the service after 4 years of service due to an RPG, which left him deaf in one ear.

On May 28^th, 2162, the US government contacted Shiloh via letter about participating in a top-secret project. The details of the project were not revealed. He was told to meet the contact in an abandoned warehouse 15 miles outside of town. Upon arriving, Shiloh was immediately bagged and taken via armored van to a location unknown to him.

Upon arriving, the bag was pulled off his head, revealing a dimly lit room, a table, and a man standing behind the table in a trench coat. After having been debriefed about the project, Shiloh was given the choice of accepting or denying the opportunity. He was told that once his role in the project had been fulfilled, his memory would be wiped, and he would never remember the current conversation that he was having. He accepted. From the moment the bag was thrown back on his head, Shiloh did not wake up again for 1 year. He had been given a sedative and was immediately taken to the complex in Beijing, where his Shadow was created. His shadow served the US government for 9 months.

However, not everything went according to plan. Scientist released Shiloh back into society, having replaced his memories of the last year in liquid stasis with simulated memories. 3 weeks after being released, Shiloh starts to experience dreams of war, very realistic dreams of things he is slowly starting to remember participating in. Something is wrong, and Shiloh is starting to realize it.

After waking up from an extremely realistic dream in which Shiloh executes an Indian ambassador by sniper rifle, he sets off on his way as usual. The day is Sunday, and Shiloh is on his way to service with his friend Jake Collar, whose nickname is JC. The two have attended the same church for 4 years, since Shiloh’s father died.

Before the service starts, people start to realize that Shiloh is back after a year of absence, and he starts saying hello to the people he has not seen in 1 year. People are closing in on Shiloh, and he starts to get nervous. As people weave in and out of his peripheral vision, he feels his blood start to boil. He gets more frustrated every time someone pops in and out of his sight. He starts to sweat.

In the midst of the confusion, a woman grabs Shiloh’s hand out of the blue. It throws him off guard, and he panics. He feels as if someone is stabbing him in the back of the neck with a sharp dagger. As he doubles over in pain, his hearing completely goes, and he sees a sudden, instant flash of white light, and then it’s back to normal, although he still can’t hear anything. As he looks up at the woman grabbing his hand, he realizes that she is no longer a she, but a man, Chinese, who has an extremely urgent look on his face. Perplexed, Shiloh looks around to also notice that he is not in a church anymore, but some sort of a laboratory. As his hearing fades back in to sync, the only thing he can hear is an explosion, and the screams of dozens of Chinese men and women in the distance. As sparks fly, and surgical utensils fly across the room, the man grabbing his hand falls into his arms, and Shiloh sees blood dripping out of his ears. After a flash of light, Shiloh realizes he is back in the church, gripping the woman’s hand so hard she is in tears, and everyone is staring at him.

This is where the film/book starts, when Shiloh wakes up after being in stasis for 1 year. He flashes back and forth between reality and this “dream” world that he does not understand. Through a series of discoveries, he embarks on a journey through the world’s governments to find out who and what he is, only to find out that he is not Shiloh Hall – he is Shiloh’s Shadow.