Warhammer 40K: Space Marine Power Armor

Today delve into the powered suits of the Warhammer 40K Space Marines – from the earliest to the latest designs.

Space Marine Power Armor

Space Marine Power Armor is an extraordinarily sophisticated defensive system, which combines huge resistance to physical damage with a sensory array and sealed environment, which protects its wearer from the ravages of the void and alien atmospheres. Integrated with the armor are networks of electro-motivated fibre bundles which mimic and augment the muscular strength of the wearer. The true genius of the design, however, lies in its close integration with the already superhuman physiology, senses, and reflexes of the Space Marine within. Working in concert, armor and Astartes together become a weapon without equal.

Each suit of Space Marine Power Armor is a work of supreme artisanship, and although it may be one of many, each is a unique artifact whose spirit and history is of deep spiritual significance to both the Chapter to which it belongs and the Space Marine who wears it. It can take decades to complete just one of the new power armor, so it is often easier to make spare parts for an existing suit than it is to make a completely new one.

There are numerous different Marks of Power Armor, most of which date back in terms of design and application many thousands of years ago to the time of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. Each has its own lore and genesis in place and time. Even in the 41st Millennium, some intact suits from this near-mythical age survive in active service as war-relics of the Space Marines. Countless others have been produced or reacquired since, and different Chapters often have entirely different panoplies they can call upon to armor their forces. It is also far from uncommon for more recently fashioned armor to incorporate slivers or whole components from far older suits as revered connections to the past.

Space Marines undergo an arduous process of receiving various implants, culminating in the implantation of the Black Carapace. This allows the Marine a direct and instinctual interface with the armor, making it, in effect, a second skin. The advanced systems of Space Marine power armor also monitor the Marine’s biological functions, feeding the Marine medical information.

Power Armor Components

While Space Marine Armor has evolved and changed over the Millennia, key components remain the same.

• Auto-senses: Contained in the helmet, these systems include thought-activated communication arrays and audio filters, targeting reticules and range finders, tactical displays and auspex-links, and a host of other features.
• Photolenses: Protect the Space Marine from light bursts and allow him to see in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum’s as well as enable vision in low-light conditions.
• Respirator Vox Grill: This thought-activated device amplifies a Marine’s battlecry to deafening volumes and contains a respirator to filter out toxins and draw upon an internal oxygen supply.
• Auto Responsive Shoulder Plates: Shaped to deflect and absorb incoming blows, they usually display heraldry including Chapter, Company, and Squad symbols.
• Chestpiece: Designed to protect armored power cables.
• Backpack Power Unit: This houses the primary power core for the armor, as well as reserve cells and an emergency solar collector.
• Life Signs Monitor: Regulate a suite of life support functions, including an injection system that can regulate painkillers, anti-toxins, and combat stimulants.
• Nutrient Reservoir: A self-replenishing high-energy food store that can sustain a Space Marine’s metabolism. Thus during battle, there is no need for a Space Marine to eat or drink.
• Reinforced Greaves: These incorporate gyroscopic stabilizers and power units that can magnetize the soles of the armor’s boots, allowing Space Marines to walk on metal surfaces in the void of space or zero gravity environments.

Mark I

Mark I plate was developed by the techno-barbarian factions that dominated Terra prior to the Emperor‘s ascendancy. When the Emperor began his conquest of Earth, the “Thunder Warriors“, the proto-Space Marines which formed part of his retinue, were armored in the same way as the soldiers of the other warlords. A thunderbolt and lightning symbol was displayed on the breastplate of warriors loyal to the Emperor – this was the personal badge of the Emperor in those days, predating the Imperial Aquila which only became the symbol of the Imperium much later. The emblem gives the suit its common name – “Thunder Armor.”

Mark II

After the conquest of the main planets of the Sol system, the factories on Mars were set to work constructing a new type of armor for the Emperor’s elite Space Marines. This armored suit is commonly referred to as “Crusade Armor,” since it was designed with the planned Great Crusade in mind, and its production led to the Thunder Armor being retroactively designated as the Mark I. It was the first fully enclosed power armor, with life-sustaining capabilities, making it suitable for combat on toxic alien planets and the depths of space.

Mark III

This model dates from the wars of the Great Crusade, waged close to the galactic core. Many of these worlds were the Squat Homeworlds, which were not pleased to find themselves the object of galactic conquest. The Squats’ independent and stubborn nature, along with the conditions of the fighting, spurred the creation of this new armor type. This armor was ideal when cover was minimal and combat was a matter of frontal assault. The most visually brutal and imposing of all the widely produced armor marks, the Iron Armor was a heavy, modified Mark II design (itself the first mass-produced Power Armor of the Crusade era). The Iron Armor’s structure has augmented frontal defence and incorporates additional ablative plates, and is intended foremost for use in boarding actions, tunnel assaults and void warfare, although it is considerably heavier and more power hungry than its contemporaries.

Mark IV

At the end of the Great Crusade, the Space Marines found their armor wearing out. While some Legions chose to continue local production and maintenance, the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars started to design a new variant for centralised issue, which was to be designated the Mark IV or Imperial Maximus suit. At the Mark IV stage of the power armor development, Space Marine armor began to take on an appearance recognisable as contemporary power armor, the main change being the abandonment of the separate abutting plates in favour of larger inflexible armor casings incorporating flexible joints. This marginally reduced mobility but was far easier to produce and maintain. Technical secrets recovered on newly conquered worlds allowed Mars to develop the more efficient armor, improving the quality of protection and reducing the suit’s weight at the same time. Improved armoring of the power cables allowed the main arm and chest supply to be safely relocated to the exterior of the armor, while the use of new material reduced the size and number of cables.

Mark V

The equipping of the legions was only partially complete when the Horus Heresy broke out. Many of the Legions that had just been fully equipped with Mark IV armor turned against the Imperium while many of the loyal Legions had been deliberately starved of access to it and and remained operating with the older Mark II and Mark III armor. Additionally, even the Legions equipped with Mark IV suits quickly found themselves low on spare parts and unable to manufacture replacement units. With war damage and mobile operations, resupply for damaged equipment was difficult or impossible. Marine artificers and Techmarines had to use old style equipment from older models to keep the legions fighting, as well as salvage from slain enemies and unorthodox innovations of their own. This ad-hoc assemblage of various armor mark segments (including new or unoffical design elements) being created by a multitude of legions resulted in an entirely new mark of armor being ‘accidentally’ created; these previously non-standard, emergency/stopgap designs were retroactively termed as the Mark V – “Heresy Armor”. Few Loyal Chapters retain examples of this armor and the suits bear a dark connotation of the Horus Heresy’s dark days.

Mark VI

At the end of production of the Mark IV armouur mark a long term research project began to replace the existing power armor. As this remained a theoretical endeavour for some time, it lead to the production of the Corvus Suit as a stopgap measure using a mixture of new and old features. The Mark VI prototype design (which bore the provisional designation of Mk V at the time) was field-tested during the Scalland Campaign by Legionaries of the Raven Guard, whose experiences and comments resulted in improved design features in the finalised armor mark. Mark VI armor offered no better protection-levels than the Mark IV, but incorporated more efficient internal systems where power-routing and auto-sense were concerned. Power systems were given back-up redundancies with no increase in weight, while both olfactory and auditory sensors were improved. Additionally, the armor featured the best stealth capabilities of all power armor marks so far designed, as well as a new method of compartmentalising components that allowed them to be swapped out with pieces from previous marks with ease. It is the lightest variant of power armor and featured dual technology circuits that allowed the replacement of rare or sophisticated parts with common or basic alternatives.

Mark VII

Mark VII armor, also known as the “Aquila,” “Imperator” or “Eagle” armor, was developed during the Horus Heresy, and remains in use as the most common form of power armor ten thousand years later. It represents the final major development of Mark 6 armor. While the final battle for Mars was underway, the Imperium realised the planet would eventually be lost. Armor development teams were transferred to Earth to continue, incorporating their latest work into the armor type that would become Mark 7. As Mars fell to Horus, the new armor began reaching the Space Marines on Terra and Luna.

Mark 7’s main improvement is the newly designed chest plastron which covers the chest and arm cabling. The chest bears the Imperial Eagle, giving the armor its common name of Armorum Imperator, or “Eagle Armor”.

Mark VIII

The suit itself is a highly modified Mark 7, with additional fixed armor plates on the torso that now enclose all of the suit’s cables, which were vulnerable to weapons fire, and a new armored collar protects the helmet’s respirator, and also addressed the vulnerability issues of the neck joint, which had been known to act as a “shell-trap”, (a round could hit the chest armor and be deflected up into the neck joint). The new collar required a new helmet design, which caused problems for backward compatibility with earlier helmet types.

Mark X “Primaris Armor”

Mark X Tacticus armor is a suit that combines the most effective elements of ancestral Horus Heresy patterns of plate with more recent developments in power armor technology. These suits are currently carried into battle by Primaris Space Marines during the  Indomitus Crusade,and beyond. It forms the basis of the entire range of modular power armor suits used by Primaris Space Marines.

Aegis Armor

Grey Knights wear Aegis Armor, power armor that is incredibly well crafted; anointed and inscribed with prayers and wards, ritually consecrated and psychically charged. The suits are generally based on components from Mark VI, VII and VIII power armor designs, with a modified helmet design with a tapered, knight-like visor.

Terminator Armor

Terminator or more precisely “tactical dreadnought suits” are the most heavily armored suits a Space Marine Chapter can field. Like power armor, Terminator suits have an outer shell of ceramite-bonded plates powered by electrically-motivated fibre bundles. Plates of heavy plasteel further armor the ceramite sections, especially on the front of the suit. This extra armoring provides a level of protection that is far superior to normal Marine armor; not even a Krak missile will penetrate the suit’s breastplate. Difficult to manufacture and rare,many Chapters possess only a handful of Terminator suits. They are reserved for their most experienced veterans and deployed for only the most dangerous of missions.

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Lexicanum

~Now the mystery is what was the fate of Mk.IX Armor.

Dad, Gamer, Publisher, Pilot, Texan. All games all the time since junior-high.
I started BoLS Interactive in 2006. I’m a lifelong tabletop & RPG gaming enthusiast, and internet publisher working to entertain and inform my readers every day.
I’ve been playing RPGs and Tabletop Games since the 1970s. I’m been playing and covering Warhammer and Warhammer 40K for over 35 years.

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