24. Sins

On the back of a robot sitting in the hall, there was a series of unfamiliar cartridges.

Were they power cartridges or some sort of coolant?

“The major characteristic of Sins are the power cartridges on its back that you can see at a glance. This robot was powered by human life energy.”

“What’s life energy?”

“It’s as it says. It was equipped with a unique system that converted heat, emotions and body fluids that humans generated into energy. Teenage men and women with intense, energetic emotional ups and downs were especially useful sources of power. The average run time for each ‘cartridge’ was about one hour.”

“So, what’s inside it?”

“Yes. The cartridge doubles as a simple life support capsule and carries a conscious human inside. When it is used up……the human inside dies and the cartridge is automatically ejected from the robot like a spent casing.”

“That’s horrible.”

“The stresses of the battlefield intensified the emotional ups and downs of the ‘power sources’, causing the robot to achieve better than expected results. By the end of the war, there were 30 such robots with 1200 cartridges produced.”

“What happened to it in the end?”

“The war degenerated into a war of attrition. Robots that ran out of cartridges continued to fight with the pilot as the cartridge, with none returning home. This robot was found half destroyed, drifting in space among debris, and was restored by museum staff. The cartridge on the back, however, is just a replica that reproduces its appearance based on data.”

There was one cartridge at the robot’s feet and an identical one on its back.

She operated a panel on a cartridge and it slowly opened up.

It was a cylindrical coffin.

That said, there was definitely enough space for one person to fit inside.

“Would you like to go inside? We can take a commemorative photo for you.”

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