I had an idea for a short story, involving some of the character archetypes I’ve thought up. In the future, mechoids (my version of big battle mechs — robots two or three stories high controlled by a single human in the center or head of the bot) are used to patrol cities, fight wars, etc. Mechoid fighters (the pilot/controller) are heroes. A young man wishes to become a mechoid fighter. He’s brave, strong, attractive. His sister, a budding political activist, worries about it. She is concerned the military will brainwash him, and thinks the mechoids are overused in civil situations. Still, he joins up and forms a competitive friendship with another skilled mechoid fighter cadet.
He discovers the ability to easily and quickly control a mechoid is accomplished by a neural interface implanted directly in his skull. This gives his sister even more misgivings. Eventually he gets deployed with his friend and they fight a fierce battle overseas. He describes it to his family and he seems nearly oblivious to the damage he did to civilian areas in the battle, just saying “I knew those were my orders and I had to do them”. Later, he is deployed on a civil assignment near his home: to protect a shipment of military supplies crucial to one of the many wars going on. Protesters are trying to sabotage the convoy. Things get ugly and people start getting killed, citizens. He has some doubts and tries to stop it, but realizes it’s not just his orders encouraging him on, but his neural interface, trying to force orders on his brain. He fights it and has to battle and destroy his friend’s mechoid when the friend nearly attacks his sister, one of the protesters.
The young man carries his injured friend and sister’s bodies away, crying. She consoles him and reminds him he was strong enough to overcome the programming. She tells him about a secret net group that has a few current and former mechoid fighters that are trying to overthrow the program. They even have a few stolen mechoids. He sets off in his mechoid to join this group and help save the other fighters who are being controlled by the military to perform terrible inhumane acts.