Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula
| The Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula | |
| Date | 007.M31 |
| Scale | Void battle |
| Theatre | Horus Heresy |
| Status | Pyrrhic Imperial victory |
| Belligerents | |
| Alpha Legion | Space Wolves, Dark Angels |
| Commanders and Leaders | |
| Alpharius, Omegon | Leman Russ |
| Strength | |
| Bulk of Alpha Legion fleet led by the Alpha | Bulk of Space Wolves fleet led by the Hrafnkel, Dark Angels Starfort and heavy Fleet Assets |
| Losses | |
| High | High |
| Outcome | |
| Crippled the Space Wolves, limiting their role the Heresy to harassers. | |
The Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula took place directly after the Burning of Prospero, as the Alpha Legion, led by their primarch(s) attempted to utterly destroy the battered Space Wolves Legion.
Overview[edit]
As the bulk of the Space Wolves Legion departed Prospero to (metaphorically and literally) lick their wounds after the battle, they were ambushed by an Alpha Legion fleet as the Horus Heresy began to gain momentum.
Even though the bulk of two Legions naval forces were involved, similar to the Battle of Phall, this was not an especially massive void campaign. Even at its height, the Space Wolves could only muster around 60 capital ships, and around 240 escorts and smaller strike craft, and were mostly up-gunned frigates built for long range independent operations, and many were certainly deployed elsewhere prior to Prospero. Though their flagship the Hrafnkel was considered to be one of the largest ships to be built using the Gloriana frame.
As with everything related to the Alpha Legion, the strength of their fleet remained a relative unknown, but were noted to have been lacking in heavy capital ships when compared to other Legions, with their smaller vessels having a focus on speed and range, but came equipped with a variety of strange and forbidden technologies. Even so, the Alpha Legion assets in the battle were able to outnumber the Space Wolves at least two-to-one.
Against such odds, Russ realised that his fleet was drastically outmatched and beat an immediate retreat to the nearby Alaxxes Nebula where his fleet would not be cut to pieces in short order. He then began attempting to figure out what the hell was going on and who was on whose side.
Russ called up Jaghatai Khan in an attempt to get the White Scars' fleet to come to his aid, but the Khan was suspicious, having recently received a message from Horus that the Wolves had gone rogue and rebelled. Rather than intervene on either side, the Scars set out to find the truth for themselves.
With no other friendly forces around, Russ fell into despair, believing that defeat was imminent, and retreated to his chambers to ponder things. With his primarch in an emo mood, First Captain Gunnar Gunnhilt took command and decided to attempt a desperate breakout maneuver. Gunnhilt's maneuver partially succeeded, though at the cost of his own life and that of his vessel, the Ragnarok. As the battle heightened, Russ reappeared, having suppressed his inner demons regarding his past actions. Despite Russ's leadership, the Alpha Legion fleet surrounded the Space Wolves as they began their final stand.
During the conflict, a spy had infiltrated the Space Wolves fleet to determine their loyalties. This spy was captured and identified himself as Captain Ormand of the Dark Angels, and was taken to Russ, but their discussion were kept short as the Hrafnkel had been boarded by the Alpha Legion directly from their flagship the Alpha. Russ was convinced that his brother Alpharius was among the boarding party, and had marked him out as a non-descript member of a Terminator squad, and began fighting his way towards him in an attempt to engage him in a challenge. Observing the melee, Captain Ormand had remained in contact with his own allies the whole time. When those allies requested an update, the Captain answered with a single word: "Loyal".
In response, a Dark Angels fleet of Dominus-class Cruisers headed by a Ramilies-class Star-Fort, sufficient to take on either side entered into the conflict and began firing on the Alpha, triggering the boarding parties to retreat via teleportation, preventing any duel between Russ and his target.
With the momentum completely shifted in the other direction, the Alpha Legion fleet were forced to withdraw.
Aftermath[edit]
Russ explained the course of the Heresy thus far to the commander of the Dark Angels star-fort, Castellan Althalos, who had only been aware of the civil war raging in the galaxy based on fragmentary reports, and had been uncertain of who to trust. The Dark Angel explained that in an uncertain galaxy, and given the reputation of Leman Russ himself, they had to first determine the intentions of the Space Wolves legion before intervening on their behalf. These Dark Angels answered to Luther, but remained Loyalists, as they had been out of contact for quite some time, and were even unaware of the tradition of Honour Duelling that had arisen between the two Legions, which Russ found quite refreshing.
There was an exchange of information for materials, refits, and repairs, though Russ acknowledged that his Legion would never be the same force that it had once been, and became almost singularly focused on taking the fight directly to Horus.
Therefore he set a course for Terra to contemplate his plans for assaulting Horus directly, putting in action a plan for the Knights-Errant to determine the traitors' strength and scout out the Vengeful Spirit's weak points while it was in orbit above the planet Molech, setting the stage for the eventual Battle of Trisolian which would occur later. The battle also left Russ nursing a colossal grudge against Jaghatai and the White Scars, which would later lead to a heated confrontation when the V Legion returned to Terra on the eve of the Siege.