Suits

Suits are extraterrestrial warmachines sent to Earth by the Vannai in the form of Pods. Pods themselves are single-use manufacturing units that produce Suits based off of deep mental scanning during a forced unconscious period while also applying the necessary brain alterations to turn the user into a "Puppet" or "Pilot". Based on data collected via a sort of "dream interface", the Pod will construct a Suit for the user, incorporating the individuals tastes and tendencies to the design. Once the process is complete, the Suit and pilot are unleashed onto the waiting world. 
Because of the nature of the design process, no two Suits are alike. However, they do broadly fall into several categories. The original term "power armor" applies to some of these categories and sums up the original intent of a Suit's use, but due to the variety of shapes and sizes, "Suit" is generally considered the most applicable word to describe these devices. Suits are sorted by weight class, with Mesh-Class being the lightest and Fortress-class the heaviest that the typical pod is able to create. Both weight classes are fairly atypical, however, and most Suits fall into the "power armor" categories of Light and Medium. Heavy-class Suits are firmly outside the realm of "power armor", as they do not rely on movement of the limbs for power. Some Suits, referred to as super- or gigaforts may extend further above the bounds of the standard weight classes, though these classes are not clearly defined as Suits inside them are exceptionally rare.
The goal of the Vannai was to equip humans with their technology to enact a sort of "wargame" for them to study and learn from, and the use of pods and Suits seems to be wholly unique to their operations on Earth, as the initial Puppet enemies were soon supplemented with original machinery and constructs. Nonetheless, the perception of "Suit-tech" and "Suit-sourced" weaponry and technology as being a separate category altogether persists. Suits are in fact compatible with human technology and can be modified with sufficient tools and expertise, though not all aspects of a Suit's features and capabilities are fully understood. Despite being modifiable and maintainable, Suits are known to possess a self-repair ability that alleviates the burden of maintenance while allowing Suits to be altered and upgraded according to the pilot's needs and changes in fighting style. Suits are also capable of utilizing pocket dimension technology to compact themselves or their weaponry down when not in use, the nature of which remains utterly mysterious to human science.
Another feature of Suits is their power source and ability to generate power. A Suit's energy comes from its internal stores of Sludge, an oil-like substance that serves as a medium to store solar energy. The means by which a Suit absorbs and converts solar power into Sludge is a complete mystery given the astounding efficiency with which they do so, and theories abound on how the Vannai achieved such a feat. All weaponry used by a Suit interfaces with this power source on some level, allowing for complete cross-compatibility of weaponry between Suits while also resulting in slightly lowered efficiency when a weapon intended for a Suit is used separate from one. This also means that a Suit's performance can suffer severely when deprived of sunlight. 
Some Suits appear to be made of biological matter, and the nature of such creatures was a subject of great interest to the Engineers, as these bio-Suits proved to be just as capable - and in some cases superior to, their mechanical counterparts. It was soon discovered that bio-Suits were a sort of "mimic-life" instead. Bio Suits lack DNA or true biology; instead, they utilize non-biological components arranged in organic structures to achieve a result similar to both. A biological Suit may bleed, grow, die, wither, heal and behave in ways similar to living flesh, but ultimately are inorganic at their base, and follow similar rules in design to their mechanical brethren, with the added benefit of these pseudo-biological components being more resistant to powerful magnetic fields.
Possession of a Suit grants their Pilots incredible power, but Suits and pilots are far from unstoppable. A Suit is not a weapon of mass destruction, and cannot fight an army of conventional foes head-on, as was proven during the Two Week War. Suits are very good at keeping their users alive for as long as possible, but are not indestructible, and can be threatened by conventional human weaponry. Despite this, for all their speed, power and durability, the best counter to a Suit is another Suit.
Category:PACYOA: TE