Ordinary mortals and elite troops like the Battle Nuns alike are unable to use real Interstellar Warrior Powered Armor and can only use adapted Reactive power armor.
These eight who have grown black carapaces, signifying that they have matured into new blood, can now don the power armor, which was last purchased by the governor and has completed its exterior paint job, and fight side by side with their predecessors.
Commander Matins took them all with him on this mission.
He had to admit, the new blood of the battalion, cultivated by the governor in his mysterious and even unfathomably deep ways, had a very high level of tactical proficiency—even surpassing that of the recruits during the battalion's heyday. (T1 level training)
But no matter how mature the tactical proficiency may be, the experience of war, the instinct for war, and the mindset honed through countless skirmishes cannot be produced through pure training alone.
One must personally experience the blood and fire.