Power Armor Lore

Power armor in essence is simply heavy armored plates backed by a electrical or hydraulic movement system, allowing the user to have maximum armor and maximum strength. In the wasteland most suits of this kind are very rare and very expensive due to their complexity, only few factions even have them but the most common user of these suits are the Iron knights who have large stockpiles of the suits that where created before the end.

Most of the suits found in the wasteland are new manufacture or pieced together from many different sources. Tethered unarmored exoskeletons for heavy lifting are quite common in the more tech savvy towns, as they are comparably simple the the complex combat suits who have many life support functions other then simple armor. The history of the suits before the end was quite simple, being a walking tank, the military loved this idea and started building hundreds of the suits under the complex named Temple rock.

The Mark 1 Armored combat suit, is fairly rare due to its short production time, it was very simple compared to the newer suits, these where more or less a exoskeleton with armor slapped onto its frame to allow more protection then the user normally could afford in weight. Short battery life condemned these suits to Tethered use only, some of these old suits can be seen used by tower guards in small out posts due to the fact they allow a sniper more armor then he could ever need, while the lack of a battery mattered little.

The Mark 2 is really just a Mark one with a battery pack that allowed for two hours of use without charging, a upgraded helmet design as well to allow a gas mask was added, these sets of armor can be sometime seen on bandit warchiefs.

The Mark 3 is the first of the military series of combat armor to be allowed into service, no longer a simple set of machines to give strength, it was now part of its user's body in terms, a neural connection to the helmet's computer system allowed for the first time, a almost perfect sync between the armor and the user, moving it as if it was his own body, but of course these early suits had many problems, mostly due to a lack or armor, the advanced computer that ran this system was very heavy so armor had to be lose thickness as well as a loss in battery power, one and a half hours was pushing it without charging. Along with the neural controller in the helmet, several other helmet upgrades followed along with it, mostly the loss of the eye slits and replacement with camera's and other sensors.

The Mark 4 is a failed prototype of a micro nuclear reactor in up armored Mark 3 system, only one suit produced, kept as archive material at the Temple Rock armory

Mark 5, the most common suit of the Iron Knights, the first adaption of the advanced power system, instead of hydraulic lines and pistons, it used synthetic muscle fibers to allow more armor to thoroughly wrap the suit allowing for better protection the user, in addition to this total layout change, the computer systems became more efficient as did the strength of the battery, allowing three hours of run time without stop. The helmet received yet another upgrade, optical computing allowing heavy weapons to be more accurate when used with the armor.
Mark 5 image

Spoiler:

Mark 6, One of the two recent additions to the power armor of the wasteland, this along with the mark 7 are only found in the armories of the Iron knights as they are the ones who designed and created them, however due to their extremely complex systems, they only belong to the seven commanders of the Iron knight's units. The general upgrades is mostly though the use of composite armor, Kevlar, standard steel plates and even depleted uranium strike plates make these suits able to protect the user past the point of other marks of armor, .50 BMG is the least needed to punch though its tough armor.  As well as These upgrades as stated, many computer upgrades exist as well, even a surveillance unit for long range observation. Mark 6 Image

Spoiler:

The final mark of combat power armor, the Mark 7, only one suit of this highly classified armor exist, its worn by the Arch Knight as a sign of office. Little is known about this armor minus the fact it has repelled 50 caliber machine guns as if they where foam darts, and allowed the user to move faster then any other mark of armor. Due to the extreme complexity of this suit, only one unit has been made, and most likely it will be the only as the cost of a single mark 7 is the price of ten mark 5 units and with the ever increasing lack of resources, building more would make no sense.

*Other notes.
Power armor above mark 2 cannot be worn by a magicast or a holowings user as it requires pure blood and a lack of implants for the neural link to function correctly.

Major military bases have a underground grid in the floor to power the armor for a unlimited time though wireless transfer of energy.

Power armor can be hacked, however they have safeties to keep the user from being electrocuted or the armor causing self harm, shutdown is the most common thing when power armor is hacked.