- "He's got Power Armor, Chief! Take down his armor before you close!"
- — Marine during first encounter on Sierra 117
Power Armor [1], is the Brute armor featured predominately during the events of the Covenant Civil War. Though in use since 2524, it saw widespread field operations only sometime after the Battle of High Charity.
Function
Power Armor serves as extra protection to the Brutes, who before the civil war were generally unarmored or poorly armored. It provides protection from all ballistic and plasma weaponry until failure of the shielding, and even light shrapnel/explosive protection, and also provides light protection from the environment and elements.
In addition, the armor also displays the rank of the Brute wearing it, usually through the color or complexity of the armor. The system is similar to that of the other Covenant races, although it seems to follow its own nomenclature.
In Halo: Contact Harvest, it is said that plasma was leaking out of a Brute's power armor as the shielding failed.
Strengths
As with all energy shielding, it is very good at absorbing damage from projectile weaponry. It also seems to solve the problem the Covenant may have had with finding energy shielding that would work on Brutes and be suitably affordable.
It comes in many varieties, some with more strength then others, and some with useful secondary applications (such as the built in Cloaking in Brute Stalker Power Armor, and the inability to stick grenades or Needler needles to Brute Chieftain Power Armor).
It also does not give off as much of a glow as Elite and Spartan energy shielding, which can be good for not revealing your position, and since it falls apart once the shields go down; the Flood cannot use it for themselves. However if the Flood infects a Chieftain who's armor doesn't fall off, it will still become a minor Brute combat form.
Weakness
It is markedly weaker than Elite Personal Energy Shielding, and the energy shields of Spartan MJOLNIR Armor. It is easy to see how damaged the armor currently is via the luminosity of the armor's lights and the presence of sparks and smoke, which signifies that the armor's shielding is almost depleted. It also has an inability to recharge after complete overload (unlike Elite and Spartan shielding), and in fact falls apart (perhaps showing that it is held together onto the Brute by the energy shielding itself). Luckily the Brutes are already naturally resilient, and can withstand substantial amounts of damage without armor.
It also falls prey to the usual weaknesses of energy shielding, including weakness to plasma weaponry (especially overcharged plasma pistol shots, which take it down in one hit).