Espionage, subterfuge and deceit was an art in the time of Old Corporations. They made artificial humanoids, capable of changing their appearance. Even internal appearance - shape and size of organs, blood vessels, nerves, muscles and tendons, bowels. DNA. Not to mention things as trivial as iris patterns, fingerprints or blood type.
They were semi-independent, sent to gather data. Sometimes they were programmed to assassinate but most times it went wrong. After scoring the kill, they impersonated their victims, starting to believe that they are and always have been him/her/it/???
They had biological immortality and the ability to enter torpor for decades.
They all have died in the Corporate Wars. And even if some somehow survived, their minds were overwhelmed by centuries of existence with total recall. So if there are some Doppelgangers still living, they had impersonated someone many, many years ago. Or they've been transformed into something else.
Some do believe that Doppelgangers are now the leaders of all major cults and factions, still playing their cosmic game. They are free now - their masters and their entire world being dead for 1000 years.
Misunderstood, they found the last Ancient Robots and formed some kind of alliance with them. No one is able to understand rudimentary, simple minds of antediluvian automata and no one is able to understand labyrinthine, multi-layered and absolutely insane minds of Doppelgangers.
Someone may still know the ancient keywords, allowing them to control the artificial minions of the past. But there were as many keywords as there were Doppelgangers. Or even more, much more.
I know I met one. There was something in her eyes. The weight of universe, the terror of interstellar nothingness, the oceans of dust gathered during the last millennium. She knew that I knew but she let me live.
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