[An anime-type story; told in story arcs]
***

Mechas fighting in arenas and on battlefields, Mechas doing farmwork, construction, transportation, everything. Mechas are the perfect solution to every conceivable problem.

But there is a secret to Mechas. A terrible, horrible secret.

Inside the giant machines are human beings.

Human beings who were, centuries ago, forced to merge their senses with the metal suits in order to serve the public and make general life easier.

In the Mechas, they can live forever.

When the Mechas were first built, they were shiny and smooth and perfect. The scientists and mechanics that built them were eager to test them, but to their horror found that they could not leave the suits.

Other scientists used this fact to their advantage and created more, forcing young adults, teens, and children alike into the machines, because old bodies and minds couldn't handle the synchronizing. Often the ones chosen were outcasts of society, the cursed of the towns, for some reason considered bad and thus would not be missed if they disappeared.

So, four hundred years later, the world is supported by these ancient, dented, rusted Mechas. Without them, society would collapse and nations would fall. The scientists that knew the cruel truth about the Mechas died long ago, not expecting their creations to outlive them. It is the world's best guarded secret only known to a few dozen people at most.

But the age of the Mechas is about to come to an end. Humans are finding their way out of the metal suits and subservient roles, one by one. Changed, admittedly, but undeniably human. Others, their original minds and personalities rotted away with only the order-obeying husk left, are creating new selves. Mechas are evolving and developing self-awareness and will, finally able to break the chains surrounding them.

And it is only the beginning.