The Predator was first fielded during the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. During this age the Predator was instrumental in establishing Mankind’s dominance upon an untold number of worlds. It is theorised by those with access to the sealed archives that the Predator template was developed in response to Mankind’s earliest contacts with the [[Ork]] race. Where the [[Rhino]] had served Mankind well in previous conflicts with lesser races, the brutal, close quarters method of warfare favoured by the newly discovered Orks required different tactics altogether. The Predator was an ideal weapon against the Orks, who had few weapons that could penetrate its upgraded armour, and whose own armour offered no protection whatsoever against the tank’s reliable [[autocannon]] and [[heavy bolter]] armament.{{Fn|5}}

The Predators originally employed by the [[Emperor]]’s forces were only slightly different to those employed today, and it is a testimony to functionality of the original design that it has changed so little over the course of ten thousand years. The first Predators were equipped with a small passenger-carrying capacity, but during the prolonged campaigns of the [[Great Crusade]] it became obvious that this meager facility was of less importance than the ability to carry greater amounts of ammunition, especially if the vehicle in question was to be fitted with side sponsons. By the time of the Great Crusade, a great number of Standard Template Constructs had been lost, and it was another five millennia before the template for the Razorback, a vehicle dedicated to the role of infantry fighting vehicle, was discovered. In the meantime, Imperial tactics sacrificed transport capacity for firepower, fielding Predators as light support vehicles alongside the Rhino armoured personnel carriersAPC.{{Fn|5}}

Some [[Tech-Priest]]s claim that one of the more exotic and unusual weapon weapons of the Predator was a [[Graviton Cannon]], though there are no examples of it exist existing in the [[M41]] and the ability to re-create it has almost certainly perishedremains unknown to this day.{{Fn|8}}