Editing Setting:Cloudburst/People (section)

==Lady Subsector Hapster Astrid Oskoldr==
{{Topquote|The blood in my veins is bronze. My people have killed, bled, prayed, sailed to the tune of the Senate for eleven thousand years. Let Celeste take the credit for building Cloudburst; my people know the truth. Hapster is Cloudburst, and the Glasians will have to kill every single one of us to break us.|Astrid Oskoldr}}

The Hapster Subsector is the oldest continually-inhabited Imperial territory in the Cloudburst Sector, and the planet Hapster itself has served the Imperium loyally for over eleven thousand years. The Oskoldr family was not the first to serve as its Overlords, but they have held the post for most of that time. A distant ancestor was executed by the Inquisition for not preventing the Voidlife flotilla from robbing Hapster’s orbitals, but beside that unfortunate incident, the Oskoldrs have been in charge of the Subsector, whether politically or economically, for eight millennia.
Astrid Oskoldr is a capable and talented leader, but her reputation is that of a somewhat fearful taskmistress, who has no qualms about using whatever dirty tricks or influence-peddling she needs to get things done. Astrid was educated in an Ecclesiarchal school built on the grounds of a common estate in her closed noble enclave in her home city. By the age of twenty, her grandfather had already promised her the position of heiress to succeed him as the Subsector Overlord.
Only two years later, her younger sister attempted to poison her. Their youngest sibling, a brother, caught her in the act, and Astrid turned her over to the Arbites without a second thought. She has a small soft spot for her brother Brian, although she would never admit it. Now that Astrid has arisen to the rank of Subsector Overlord, she has been able to enact her iron-fisted vision on Hapster with none to oppose her, since Brian has taken to business instead of politics. Astrid has driven much of the senior bureaucracy of her grandfather’s administration from their posts and replaced them with people of cunning and loyalty to her, whether the displaced Adepts were bad at their jobs or not. However, the people of Hapster are warming to Astrid’s style, as it has undeniably produced results. Hapster was hit in both the Fifth and Sixth Glasian Migrations, and now the people know it will be hit in the Seventh.

Astrid’s brutal and clinical assessment of the planet’s capabilities has left no room for doubt: Hapster can’t survive another invasion unaided. Too much of the planet is inhospitable to humans for a global-scale defense to be enacted with the personnel she has available. As such, she immediately swallowed her pride and asked for assistance. Much of the Sector’s defenses are focused on Oglith or Dawn-break, but some ships from Battlefleet Cloudburst’s reserves are on the way, as are a handful of Inquisitorial assets.
The largest asset that Hapster shall enjoy in this upswing of protection, however, is Lord Admiral Maynard. The canny old officer was already in orbit over Hapster when the news of its impending invasion broke, because he had correctly anticipated that Tzeentch would target it again. Thanks to his foresight, he has been able to arrange for a significant increase in the fixed and orbital defenses of the planet, and has summoned every ship that can be spared from the defense of the two Feral Worlds in the Glasians’ path without jeopardizing them.
Astrid and Maynard get along well enough to work together, and that is the extent of their co-operation. Astrid herself has a personal rule of strong martial training, and is a dead shot with a slug-loaded shotgun thanks to her extensive hunting practice.

Politically, Astrid is a calculating and efficient person, who insists on the usual cruft of bureaucrats and Adepts that run Hapster serving her directly. When she isn’t getting away from it all in her mountain retreat, she is directing the Subsector’s government from the Imperial Castle. Of course, with so much of Hapster undergoing ecological reconstruction at any given time, the region of the planet over which she can actually preside at any time is limited. Astrid has essentially browbeaten the Planetary Governor into following her instructions concerning defense and taxation, to the extent that the Administratum of Cloudburst are somewhat taken aback; some have even begun to whisper of reprimanding Astrid if she doesn’t start adhering more closely to her position’s traditional limits.

Astrid carries a conventional military slug pistol at all times, and displays it openly. Publicly, she does so to assure the people that she is as ready as she can be to fight off the Glasians, but she could do so just as easily with a ceremonial dueling pistol, as most of her fellow Masters of the Administratum do. She uses an unadorned, ugly combat pistol as a subtle – or perhaps not so subtle – reminder to her fellow nobles that she is not to be trifled with.