I'd like to know your opinion of this idea of mine. It's the ability to see the future like the character can in mysci fi piece.

Pre-shadow- the visual perception of where something/someone is going to be before they arrive at that point in the future.

I think calling them ghosts would be a good way of visualisingwhat he sees, transparent, ethereal etc.

Pre-shadow sounds too much like foreshadowing to me, does not really evoke the visual element.

What about fore-image/foreimaging?

what makes this different from a Doppelganger?

Isn't a Doppelganger is opposite personality though?
Like a very nice person would have a very evil Doppelganger and vice-versa?

A Doppleganger is a creature that mimics a person, usually to infiltrate a group and spy on or kill other members. An example of Doppelgangers are the replicants in John Carpenter's classic The Thing.

What LoP is refering to is a kind of a ghost image (not an actual ghost) that indicates where someone or something will be a second or two in the future - sort of an image trail, but predictive. It is a psionic ability, being able to see a moment or two into the future.

Actually a Doppelganger, is a ghostly image of a living person, often foreshadowing what the person will be doing in the future. Often thought to be an omen of their impending death.

An Inkling...

I think that word portrays the ethereal quality.

Thought about inkling, but that seems too, instictive, this is beyond instinct, and I wanted the word to be more... military in origin, kinda crappy title, but means a bit, pre-shadow works, but I need something better.

Pre-something is the type of thing I feel is right for the story, if you can understand.

Doppleganger... I thought was an evil creature that could take on the form of a person, do evil deeds in their body to ruin their rep, basically make their life hell, got off on it so to speak. Too much D&D I guess.

Fore-image seems a bit too clunky, unfortunately. Pre-(insert actual word I end up using) seems right, as it means before, so I guess pre-image/future view is the type of meaning it would need.

Premonition means what you wanted almost exactly. There is also clairvoyance... or if you really want: "Prevoyance". I believe that would mean to "see before".

That could work, but it seems too mystical...

Pre-image could work as well, closer to that odd military type of name for the ability I want.

It's a toss up between prevoyance and pre-image.

Premonition is too magical a word for me, like an Oracle has a premonition, not the kind of babble I want in the story.

Try finding a word and translating it to German, etc. The sounds usually have a harsher tone, so it may give the effect you're looking for. We steal words from other languages all the time; it shouldn't seem all that odd to those reading. In addition, you can corrupt the word somewhat.

I've already created enough of a lingo for the piece, so I feel I've done enough on the language front, and I think if I try for a different language on this word, whatever it maybe, I could end up confusing the readers.

We all want to avoid that right.

I was actually likeing fore-shadow!

foreshadow is a legitimate word that means exactly what the op says is needed, but doesn't have a hyphen...

I've already created enough of a lingo for the piece, so I feel I've done enough on the language front, and I think if I try for a different language on this word, whatever it maybe, I could end up confusing the readers.

We all want to avoid that right.

Agreed, although any new word you introduce into a story requires that you convey to the reader what the word will mean. Doing so by definitions, or by adding a glossary at the beginning or end, is a bit dry, although if you use a lot of created lingo, a glossary at the end may be a useful "crib sheet". I favor using a new word in a context that makes its meaning fairly obvious, and also paraphrasing the meaning to reinforce it. That is from my vast experience of writing one mediocre short story in which I introduced several created slang terms. :)

But I also can refer back to other writers. Larry Niven created many new words in his various novels, particularly the Ringworld series. Some of them, like the expletive tanj were well known to the characters as their native slang (tanj comes from "there ain't no justice!"), so he used contextual cues like I mentioned above. Others were words in wide use among the inhabitants of places like the Ringworld, so the exporers had to speculate on the meaning of terms like "cziltang brone", or ask the locals once they had established rudimentary communication. The cziltang brone was an osmosis generator. Nessus speculated that "'brone' may be a modifier, possibly obscene."

I hope this gives some ideas on introducing customized words into your story.

I try to make it clear what the new words I created mean through the dialogue, example, I had the acronym PHUM explained as a correction to the civvie version of that word, while some of the insults are modified forms of current ones, ie nebulahead/neb head.

Foreshadow, seems too, narrative for this story. It's an ability and the military named it something stupid but, you read it and know the meaning, which is why I am leaning towards pre-image, it's an image of where someone is going to be in the very short term future.

Preposition, Amused me to say it...
Prescene, Play on words (sounds foreign if you say it fast); before the scene takes place / seen before
Presight
Deja View, hehe...

Preposition, meh, prescene and presight could work...

So right now it's a toss up between these three
Pre-image
Presight
Prescene

I like pre-image, the converse of an afterimage.

Which is the reason I like pre-image so much, it means seen before, but not in the deja view way, literally, seen before. It has that military simplity to it, while it's well, odd enough for me to like.

It just sounds a little more right than some of the others ideas I've had.

'Hayabusa looked down the hall, the pre-images of the pirates patrol appearing' is the best example of how I would use it.

I'd use it more militarily- kind of another level of bureaucracy bull****- "GET ME THE PRE-IMAGE ON MY DESK IN FIVE MINUTES, JOHNSON!!!" It would be used as an unrefined JPEG sort of thing, the fuzzy version of the image that shows up before it starts to figure itself out. (for those of you with broadband, you probably don't know what I mean, but meh)

It's his ability to see the future, short term, five seconds at most. I think the word fits better that way, where as the above use is more... obscure, how does pre-image work in that context. It sounds like a piece of ELINT (electronic inteligence) that you get from some type of satelite or observation post.

Ideally I want whatever I choose to have that military simplicity in the name, you know what it means, because that is exactly what it means, very literal.

Seems more like sonar when you describe it that way.

On the other hand, the military approach would be to make an acronym out of it, pronounceable but not necessarily intuitively obvious. Consider radar (Radio Direction and Ranging) or laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) that have become so familiar that few people even think of the origins of the names.

True, but knowing my luck it would out as CHOBAM(No idea, Composite something something) or APFSDS(Armour Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarding Shot) aka Sabot rounds.

Anyway, not all military terms are that type, acronyms yes, but some are rather simple perversions of words, and pre-image means exactly what it says, so it's simple, while being obvious.

Herky bird, which is a Hercules transport is the closest thing to what I've done, Herky is short for the name, bird saying it's a plane, hummer, well, the HMMWV is the vehicle... bingo! Rat packs or ration packs is another example of what I've done, in a way. I've shortened the first part of it, so the full name could be 'pre-sighted/pre-seen image' which in turn becomes pre-image.

Did the original poster say why "foreshadowing" isn't sufficient?

Other words:
harbinger (a word I wish I saw more of)
portent (overused to the nth degree)
herald (a good word for religious and/or other glorious/exciting circumstances)
adumbration (I like!!; literally: pre + umbra [shadow])
omen (overused much like "portent"; perhaps more so)
presage (a word I wish I saw more of)

I think that "presentiment" is also good too.

Personally, for something as slightly more complicated like this (I still don't know what you're trying to convey that couldn't be carried out by the word "foreshadow," so it's somewhat unclear and hence slightly complicated), I'd find a word that [B]does exist and either 1.) use it as it is - i.e. its denotation, 2.) use it for what people understand it as - i.e. its connotation, or 3.) tweak the meaning of either - its denotation or connotation - and make it slightly different but still manageable.

Foreshadow has a definate association and meaning entirely inappropiate for this and is something I wish to avoid, I need to this to sound the opposite of afterimage, pre-image works well at this.

Often long-ish names can be shortened by soldiers, so saying something like rat packs instead of ration packs is the type of word/phrase I am after. The full name of the ability, which is what I think some people miss, he can see into the future overlaying the present, it's short term ie three to five seconds max. Most other words reflect a more magical or mythological background which is something I want to avoid like the plague in a scifi piece.

Going back the name of the ability, in full it is something like 'pre-sighted image' which is a bit of a mouthful to say at the best of times, let alone trying to explain it to a civvie, so it would be shortened to 'pre-image' making him a 'pre-imager' or similar.

Adumbration is too complex, too scientific, he's not a lab rat but a field trooper and sniper, so deep down he's a simple guy with a strong idea of right and wrong.

So far, it seems to fit most of my selection points. It is still open to debate as something of this type can be confused with magic, and in a story when buttons are pushed for near magical effects you have to be careful.

Can you think of any current words that are about that relfect the ability to see the future and the present at the same time, the future appearing as ghosts to the person with the ability, I don't think so unfortunately.