Horus Heresy · atlas

010.M31 · The Road to Terra · date disputed

First Battle of Pluto

Place: Pluto · Segmentum Solar

Fig. 1 · Place on the map

Loyalist victory Dorn kills Alpharius on the moon Hydra; the Alpha Legion is thrown back from Sol.

The first major battle of the Solar War: the Alpha Legion, drifting in stasis with reactors shut down, penetrated the Sol system and struck at Pluto, targeting the astropathic station Hydra in order to blind Terra. Archamus with his Huscarls guessed the plan and perished at the hand of Alpharius himself; Sigismund’s Imperial Fists held out until the “Phalanx” arrived, and on the moon Hydra Rogal Dorn teleported straight to his brother and struck him down in single combat — the Alpha Legion withdrew.

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Sides

Loyalists

Special forces

Traitors

Commanders

Type
Fleet
Scale
3 of 5

Significance

One of the few killings of a primarch by a primarch; the undermining of Sol’s defences is foiled.

Disputed in the canon

  • c. 010.M31 (Lexicanum and Fandom infoboxes, per the “Solar War”); narratively it precedes the siege (c. 013–014.M31) — a noticeable conflict of order. Alpharius’s death specifically is disputed by the Alpha Legion’s doctrine of doubles (cf. Eskrador).

Sources

  1. Lexicanum: Battle of Pluto
  2. Praetorian of Dorn (J. French)
  3. The Solar War (J. French)