From the archives of Pathos Institute of Humanoid Chassis Design, Department of Acute Philosophy
LICENSE:UNIVERSITY COPY, DO NOT DISTRIBUTE
The Mechanized Chassis (hereafter Mech) acts upon the Pilot as a limiter. It restricts its Pilot's ability to interact with and interface with the world. It is of course true that The Mech, when used by the Pilot, contains immense power. But the Pilot must restrict themselves to only acting along the axis of that power.
To become a Pilot a person must abandon their ability to act at Normal-Scale, to be just a person, for at least while they are seen as the Pilot. The militaristic and social power they have, and indeed become, surpass whatever it was they were before, they cannot go back. It is not a matter of the ethics of the Pilot or the destructive capability of the Mech but simply in becoming the Pilot and Mech pair said Pilot also becomes the Mech, both while in the act of piloting and when they are not. It makes sense then as to why, maybe more than other combatants, the Pilot is often referred to as The Pilot of The Mech. Becoming a part of the machine.
The binding contract between Mech and Pilot is that the Mech needs the Pilots power. Otherwise the Mech is an inert pile of matter, nonthreatening, only dangerous in so far as it can obtain the Pilot. The Pilot's desire (or refusal) of that power does not factor in, the Pilot in accepting that contract has become filtered by the Mech like light through a lens, focusing and obscuring the Pilots ability to interact on meaningful levels other than as Pilot and Mech. In this way the Pilot's existence is a physical manifestation of the potential energy of the Mech. Every action the Pilot takes, every deal, every hand on a shoulder, every smile, every frown, caries then with it the kinetic energy of the Mech. While not as bombastic as the guns and sabres, the power exerted by the Pilot even unintentionally when outside of the Mech is limited by this interaction.
Many Pilots in my care express a certain dysphoria over this, feeling trapped within this interaction. Often describing it as if an overwhelming and imposing frame haunts their physical form when they interact with others. While the physical power of the Mech can be shut down, stowed, and walked away from... Until such a time as there is no Mech and there is no Pilot, this is the limitation of their existence. The person that became the Pilot can only be found afterwards, and even then not untainted.
Dr. Jur Ivix Candor, Pilots in The After-war
