Been thinking for a while about mechsploitation where the heroic rebels are the ones doing the handler/hound stuff because it's the only way to even the odds against the evil empire.
Imagine with me for a bit. The empire (or megacorps, pick your poison) has a whole military-industrial complex while the rebels have whatever they can scrape together, and even if the rebellion has more support they can't and won't throw away lives like the empire does (because they are in fact heroic, if flawed). Outgunned and outnumbered in every fight, the only way they stand a chance is if their pilots massively outskill the enemy.
That kind of skill doesn't come cheap, but the rebels scrounge up all the ingredients. A brilliant doctor, blacklisted for her radical ideas about bodily autonomy. Body modifications originally developed to help disabled people, discarded by the corporations as a waste of money. Martial traditions from cultures the empire tried to wipe out. And volunteer pilots emotionally connected to their mechs, willing to give everything so others can live freely, or just so damaged they've got nothing left to lose.
It works. These enhanced pilots have faster reactions, sharper awareness, better instincts, stronger morale, higher mech compatibility. The enemy can't keep up, the process is too personal for mass-produced grunts and too grueling for nepo-baby officers.
But the price is higher than the rebels realized: These pilots - no, hounds - forget how to be human. The exact symptoms vary, but it usually involves severe anxiety or depression, impaired social skills, difficulty making non-combat decisions, self-worth becoming dependent on performing well, trouble controlling aggression, and a tendency to get very attached to specific people (and if you like your mechsplo extra horny, feminization in "male" pilots and increased libido in all pilots).
And so they need handlers, people who'll accept how attached they get, speak for them to others, make decisions for them outside of combat, praise and encourage their hard work, and discipline their aggression even if it means keeping them muzzled on a leash (and also satisfy their sexual needs). Often the hound will latch onto someone they already had a bond with like a lover, dear friend, teammate or trusted officer.
It's still a hard life, one not to be chosen lightly, but most hounds and handlers find they're truly happier that way.
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