Editing Power Armour (section)

=[[BattleTech]] Battle Armor=
Powered exoskeletons were a thing for civilian purposes in Battletech for centuries for industrial uses and some comparatively light power armor suits were used by the [[Star League|SLDF]] special forces in the 28th century and during the [[Amaris Civil War]]. However, it only really took off and came into it's own league in 2842 when [[Clan Wolf]] took Clan Goliath Scorpion’s armored diving suit design called the Water Elemental and militarized it. This development happened alongside Clan Hell's Horses coming up with a new beefed up strain of 2-2.5 meter tall Warriors, who they soon were plunking into these new suits. The result were known as [[Clan Elemental|Elementals]], a nasty surprise for the Inner Sphere when they showed up in [[Clan Invasion|3050]].

Add the development of [[OmniMech]]s with universal docking ports, and the Clans developed new type of armored infantry who could recharge while riding BattleMechs into battle over vulnerable armored transport vehicles. Battletech Power Armor tends towards the bigger side of things. An Elemental Suit would weigh one metric Tonne, can tank some fire from BattleMech-scale guns, comes with a Power Claw equivalent to shred armor, a jump-pack to get away, and packs some serious firepower with an arm-mounted lascannon alongside shoulder-mounted missile pods. The Inner Sphere responded by eventually developing the Inner Sphere Standard battle armor but were initially restricted to commando drops or defensive warfare due to a lack of mass production or OmniMechs.

Post Truce at Tukayyid, both Spheroid and Clanner factions began experimenting with a variety of designs ranging from [[Seraphim Squad|light patterns capable of flight]] to [[Onager Dunecrawler|quadrupedal]] [[Dreadnought |one-man tanks]] able to take a BattleMech las-cannon blast to the face and still be able to fight.

=== Battle Armor Systems ===
Based off their Powered Exoskeleton relatives used in civilian work, Power Armor shares many of the same systems such as environmentally sealed life support, myomer-enhanced strength, an armored chassis, and an electrical military power pack with enough charge to continuously last 24 hours before a recharge or replacement is required. What makes them different is typically the inclusion of weapon mounts, an automatic medical aid dispenser, and either a power claw or a magnetic clamp to hitch a ride onto any allied OmniMech or Combat Vehicle for transportation. Smaller humanoid versions may come with either armored gloves, a basic manipulator, or a battle claw for picking up or working with items while more heavily armed models or quadrupedal ones will forgo them entirely. Some specialized variants come with advanced equipment like stealth armor, jump jets, Harjel dispensers, an ECM suite, a BC3 network system, or Modular Weapon Mounts. Many are also easily field stripped instead of requiring a dedicated fitting bay though quadrupedal Battle Armor is even more awkward to pilot with a cramped cockpit compared to humanoid models that fit like a second skin.

=== Battle Armor Models ===
Like their [[BattleMech]] brethren, Battle Armor is generally categorized into weight classes with each having tradeoffs in terms of speed, stealth, armor, or firepower: Personal Armor - Light (500 kg), Light (750 kg), Medium (1,000 kg), Heavy (1,500 kg), and Assault (2,000 kg). This is rather on the chonky side as even Light Battle Armor weighs more than Astartes Power Armor does. Below is a brief sample of the various Battle Armor models found in the game:

==== Clan ====
* [[Clan Elemental|Elemental]] (Clan Wolf, though soon every clan was churning them out once they won the production rights or stole the designs): The Original Battle Armor and the measure that every other is compared to. It's a versatile jack-of-all trades and a Medium weight design. Humorously enough, they were nicknamed “Toads” by the Inner Sphere militaries due to their chonky appearance and jumping capabilities.
* Sylph (Clan Cloud Cobra): One of the four prototypes from the Elemental Battle Armor's early days, the Inner Sphere's experimentation with other weight and specialties prompted the Clans to perfect them. The Sylph is a Light flying design that fills a niche between Jump infantry and Battle Armor at the cost of having lighter armor and a more difficult training regime.
* Undine (Clan Goliath Scorpion): Basically an up-armored and armed version of the original Water Elemental submersible exoskeleton used to create the original Clan Elemental Armor, it's an amphibious combatant derived from the four prototypes.
* Salamander (Clan Fire Mandrill): a Medium class suit based off one of the four prototypes, it's specialized as a fire-starter and anti-insurgency specialist against infantry. While its reincarnation's flamers can cause heat overloads on BattleMechs, many Clans weren't fond of the original prototype at first for being a second-line design instead of a front-line one.
* Gnome (Clan Hell's Horses): A Heavy design based on a one of the four prototypes (in this case, a failed one called the Rhino), the Draconis Combine's development of an Assault Battle Armor capable of withstanding a Heavy Laser prompted the combined-arms themed Hell's Horses to one-up their own answer. While weighing less than the Kanazuchi that prompt its development, it offers near-equal protection while being heavily armed and twice as fast.
* Golem (Clan Ghost Bear): Seeing how their rival Hell's Horses and Kuritan adversaries were developing Assault Battle Armor, the Ghost Bears created own answer with a pure Assault Battle Armor. While it can't jump, it's much faster than other Assault suits and is armed to the teeth as a weapons platform.
* Corona (Clan Star Adder): Created by Clan Star Adder, this one is an Assault Battle Armor designed explicitly around a Medium Pulse Laser as a stand-off weapon to threaten Mechs from a distance. While it can't jump, it's transportable via OmniMech and is twice as fast as the Elemental Battle Armor.

==== Inner Sphere ====
* Night Hawk (Star League): a Personal Armor - Light design, it was originally designed in top secret for the SLDF's special forces. Unfortunately it was never mass produced for general use and any survivors remained mothballed under ComStar's armories until after the Clan Invasion. While revolutionary for being the Clan Elemental Armor's grandfather alongside the Water Elemental armored diving suit, it's essentially just a sneak suit mounting body armor alongside armored gloves, jump jets, and an ECM suite.
* Tornado (ComStar/Word of Blake): another Personal Armor - Light model reversed engineered off the Night Hawk, it's custom tailored to the user and so isn't easily mass produced. It does come with a low resolution mimetic Camo System and is popular for special forces or militia if heavier Battle Armor is prioritized for front line combat units.
* Purifier Adaptive (ComStar/Word of Blake): A Medium Battle Armor designed by Comstar but produced by the Word of Blake and later the Republic of the Sphere. While not extraordinary in combat performance, it literally can be rendered invisible to sensors and eyes with its Memetic Armor system (which later evolved into the BattleMech Void Signature System).
* Inner Sphere Standard (Federated Commonwealth): The first Inner Sphere produced Battle Armor. Based off of captured Elemental Battle Armor, this Medium was quickly pressed into service against the Clan Invasion and served as a default suit sold across the Inner Sphere with multiple other suits based off it with mere anesthetic national cosmetics as a differentiator.
* Hauberk (Federated Suns): Based off Undine units bought from Clan Sea Fox, it was redesigned as an Assault unit that, while slow and requiring APC's instead of OmniMechs to transport, is heavily armored and given respectable armament.
* Infiltrator Mk I & II (Federated Suns): A generalist Medium design, the more primitive Mk I and the streamlined MK II are both among the first units designed to use Stealth Armor to aid in hiding it from detection. Former is more focused in recon than combat while the latter used data off reverse-engineered Night Hawk suits helped redesign it to have a mini Gauss Rifle.
* Sloth (Lyran Commonwealth): One of the first Quadripedal Battle Armor designs, this Heavy suit is designed for as a low-laying heavy weapons platform. However, it can't use its limbs for manual manipulation of items like a power glove or combat claw while being unable to ride OmniMechs.
* Grey Death series (Lyran Commonwealth): Coming in Infiltrator, Scout, Standard, Heavy, and Strike variations, this series of Battle Armor is unique in that it was developed and mass produced by technicians and facilities owned by the House Carlyle, Lyran owners of the Grey Death Legion mercenary unit. It has a diverse set of suits for multiple roles.
* Kanazuchi (Draconis Combine): An Assault Battle Armor created as a private project by the Combine's MIC, the first few prototypes had disastrous performance records to the point that it was almost shelved permanently. Only later with the second prototype was it given funding before being live-tested. While the Mad Cat ER PPC destroyed the unit, the pilot survived and proved that the suit was useful for infantry seeking to survive fire from an Assault Mech.
* Raiden (Draconis Combine): Essentially a Combine improvement to the Inner Sphere Standard. Unfortunately, the first prototypes suffered delays as the Coordinator wanted it to survive a hit from a Large Laser instead of a Medium Laser. He also ordered the chief designer to be the live performer for the test. Despite being 70 years old, the man put on the suit and proved that it can withstand a weapons barrage despite the suit being left barely functional.
* Kishi (Draconis Combine): The little guy of DCMS's Battle Armor fleet; weighing in at only 750kg and designed for urban combat. It's cheap and easy to maintain while being based off of data the DCMS obtained from partnerships with the Nova Cats.
* Leonidas (Free Worlds League): A Medium weight battle armor, it is highly configurable and is capable of acting as a commander, a guerilla, and other roles due to its modular weapon mounts and wide pool of weapons configurations.
* Longinus (Free Worlds League): A Medium weight Battle Armor, this model is the closest an Inner Sphere military ever got to reverse engineering the Clan Elemental Armor's simultaneous possession of Jump Jets and shoulder-mounted missile launchers. However, the Jump Jets are only usable once the disposable missile launchers are expended and discarded.
* Trinity (Capellan Confederation): Developed by the Capellans alongside the Taurians and Canopians, these Medium weight suits are known as Ying Long, Asterion, and Theseus respectively in their home countries. While a respectable suit, all three nations had various tensions form various political divisions such as reverse-engineering, tech monopoly, and lack of manufacturing coordination.
* Shen Long (Capellan Confederation): A Heavy quadrupedal armored suit, it possesses a stealth armor chassis and a modular weapons turret to enable it to act as a nifty skirmisher.
* Centaur (Republic of the Sphere): Designed secretly after the Jihad, this Heavy humanoid battle armor can convert from a standard configuration to a stationary quad configuration with extendable support stabilizers as a portable mini artillery piece.
* Simian (Republic of the Sphere): Another design the Republic secretly developed after the Jihad, this gorilla-themed Battle Armor is a Medium weight class with lots of speed and a lot of conventional weapon loadouts to lesson costs.