Aiding the expansion of Mankind across the known universe since the Dark Age of Technology, the Predator Battle Tank shows no sign of faltering in its duty.
Via our good friends at Lexicanum
The Predator is a battle tank employed by the Space Marines. It is a more heavily armed and armored version of the Rhino personnel carrier. There are two major patterns of Predator, the Destructor and the Annihilator, primarily distinguished by their specific weaponry. The Blood Angels and their Successor Chapters employ the assault-oriented Baal Predator. Construction of Predators remains restricted to a Chapter’s Armory or allied Forge World, with most Chapters fielding between twenty to thirty of all types. However, some Chapters are known to contain several hundred battle tanks, though that number includes Land Raiders as well.
The Predator was first fielded during the Dark Age of Technology. The Dark Age of Technology was the zenith of mankind’s scientific knowledge and technological power. Even millennia later, mankind has not been able to equal or regain their former height of achievement. This age was long before the Age of the Imperium and knowledge of this time period is now incredibly sparse, and many “facts” about it are mere legend. It was the highest point of scientific achievement accomplished by humanity.
During this age, the Predator was instrumental in establishing Mankind’s dominance upon an untold number of worlds. It is theorized 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 favored 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 armor, and whose own armor offered no protection whatsoever against the tank’s autocannon and heavy bolter armament.
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 Rhino armored personnel carriers.
Some Tech-Priests claim that one of the unusual weapon of Predator was a Graviton Cannon, though there are no examples of it exist in the M41 and the ability to re-create it has almost certainly perished.
