I was wondering if a battlemech is simply the evolution of the concept of spacesuit-wearing infantry. In a scenario where space travel is the norm, and many worlds where settlements are made have hostile or no atmosphere, space-borne infantry assaulting any sort of settlements on such worlds would have to not only wear appropriate protection gear, but also to be rather heavily armoured, consiering that with modern spacesuits AFAIK even slight damage could mean death for the person wearing it.
With such heavy armor, the next step is to create the means for the soldier to carry it around, along with the consistently heavier weapons needed to penetrate the armor. This would mean servomotors, or larger exoskeleton that would be "piloted" rather than "walked". Considering rather rough and unpredictable surfaces of the planets and asteroids the wars are fought on, a more reliable base than the wheeled or tracked one has to be used, with an ability to jump, step over rubble or debris, and such. The two or even four legged mechs would provide just that, and since they could be dropped from orbit into the zone of conflict, that provides additional impetus versus a tank that needs to have a lander transport, and may get stuck within carnage caused by increasingly more destructive weapons.
When the mechs are powerful enough to each pack enough punch to destroy a small army, and the humanity is spread enough through space that direct government control from the capital is very hard, mechs would become a weapon of choice for the neo-feudal rulers of faraway worlds due to only needing a few mechs to maintain order, and due to smaller populations of the outlying planets.
This is of course more of FH, but plausibility wise, how does it look?
