Fabrice Diallo

Fabrice Diallo
Title/Honours	Senator of the Void Angels, later Speaker of the Angels Imperious and Warden of the Markian Pact
Legion	Fifth
Great Crusade Command	333rd Expedition Fleet

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Fabrice Diallo (b. 808.M30) was a warrior and officer in the Void Angels Legion and later the founding Speaker (Chapter Master) of the Angels Imperious. He was extremely long-lived, even by the standards of the Adeptus Astartes, and played a prominent role in the Second Vetrovnak Incursion.

Origins

Often thought to have been recruited from Afrik, Fabrice Diallo was in fact born in the Hives of Francia. As a child he had great athletic potential and was initially groomed as a professional sportsman, but the chance to join the Emperor's glorious Space Marine Legions in the Great Crusade called more strongly to the youth. For all his ambition, he was almost ejected from the recruitment process for fighting with other recruits. Only the shortage of other recruits led Antoine Antonelle, then Legion Master of the inglorious Fifth Legion, to accept Diallo.

The decision proved fortuitous. Diallo's fierceness and drive sustained him through the difficulties of the gene-seed implantation. More importantly, the direct supervision of Master of Recruits Remus Alsara helped to foster a sense of discipline within the young recruit. By the time he had completed his training, Diallo was considered a highly promising Neophyte and some expressed their regret that he would go on to serve an outfit as lowly as the Fifth.

Service in Fifth Legion

The young Marine couldn't have cared less for such opinions. He relished the opportunity to help redeem the Fifth and flourished under Antoine Antonelle's leadership. Fabrice Diallo rose quickly to the command of newly-formed Second Squadron, leading his men in the campaigns of the Primarch Arelex Orannis. Orannis was a thoughtful strategist who was glad of Second Squadron's talents during the difficult battles in the Solar Segmentum. Many splendid victories were won through their combination, with the Battle of the Caspian Heights considered a particular high-point.

Diallo's Second Squadron also served, rather less happily, under the Eyes of the Emperor. The Nineteenth Legion also lacked its Primarch, but their ruling Council of Ten were close to Hektor Cincinnatus and extremely influential. The Fifth Legion marines were used by the Eyes as a reserve force and generally dispatched to "dirty" work, such as counter-insurgency. Dispatches between Antoine Antonelle and Fabrice Diallo indicate a belief that this was a deliberate attempt to stain the Legion's honour, but they were unable to secure a transfer. Although this period marked a nadir of the Fifth Legion's fortunes, Diallo's previous achievements were cited by Orannis as reason enough not to simply disband the Legion altogether.

If Fabrice Diallo had saved his Legion, the rediscovery of Gaspard Lumey marked a real turning point in their fortunes. The Primarch's presence alone brought prestige, but he was also an aggressive and brilliant commander. Lumey reviewed the combat records of Antonelle's cadre, but he promised the officers who passed into his command that it would be their successes in the new Legion, not the old, that would show their worth. Fabrice Diallo proved himself in the fighting of the Pacification of the Chwiorydd Hardd and the Al-Sherar Sector War and the Primarch put great trust in him as a result. Diallo spent decades at the head of Expeditionary Fleets during the Great Crusade. He was regaled as the Hero of the Latoti Crusade and credited with ending WAAAGH! Rok'Ed by slaying its Warlord in single combat, though in truth the deed was done by Eldar from Craftworld Meros. He was also called on to lead critical missions during Legion-scale operations, such as the ground assault on Karazak in the Core Worlds Campaign. As a decorated hero of the Legion, Diallo was temporarily appointed Lumey's second in command following the death of Antoine Antonelle at the Battle of Rai, but Augustin Carron would succeed him after only a short tenure. It is generally believed that all concerned felt Diallo's talents were better employed in the field of battle than as the Primarch's right hand.

With the mortality of the Primarchs proven by the horrors of the Hektor Heresy, some believed that Diallo was the logical heir to the Fifth Legion. But this was not to be. The reforms of the Institutorum Astartes saw the Void Angels Legion broken up into thousand man Chapters. Gaspard Lumey resigned his command entirely, passing the command of the Void Angels Chapter to Mai Dac Kien. Diallo was charged with establishing his own legacy as the founding Speaker of the Angels Imperious.

Leadership of the Angels Imperious

His new command was based on Kouralia, a Water World in the Markian Pact. The close proximity of Ciban IV, the Void Angels' homeworld, allowed Diallo and Mai Dac Kien to often consult with one another on critical decisions. Their close relationship helped to maintain fraternal ties between the Fifth Legion's Successor Chapters. In order to deflect criticisms that these ties meant that Fifth Legion would exist de facto, Diallo broke with the Forge World Al-Sherar. He instead looked to the smaller but closer Forge World Ghalhal. Ties with an old ally of the Markian Pact helped to bolster the popularity of the Angels Imperious on their recruiting worlds.

As a Terran-born Space Marine, Fabrice Diallo was already accounted as a veteran commander by the time of the Reformation. In the centuries that followed, his peers gradually passed away or were interred in Dreadnoughts, such that by the time of the Second Vetrovnak Incursion Diallo was one of the very oldest and most experienced warriors in the entire Imperium. His appointment as Martial Primaris for the duration of the emergency was unsurprising and effective. Diallo employed his moral authority to rally the defenders of mankind and his military genius to direct them. He was greatly assisted in his crusades by intelligence gathered by Chapter Sigma and interpreted by the Inquisitor Vera Vinter, which gave Imperial psykers the ability to sense Vetrovnak fleet movements and diminished the invader's advantage of surprise.