Editing Nobledark Imperium Notable People (section)

===Hortensia Zuriñe Joaquima McConnell, Commodore (retired)===

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Born 547 years ago but due to time distortions of warp travel probably about 450. A hard woman that excelled in her career in the Imperial Navy and would almost certainly have made admiral in a few more decades. Extremely good at organizing the inner working of a large groups of people and extremely good at surrounding herself with people to delegate to on the principle that a strong leader knows how to use the strengths of others. Her ship, the ''Angel Ascending'', was immaculate and ran with great efficiency brought about by hard discipline. For this she was hated and loved by her crew in equal measure, on the one hand she made life hard but on the other hand it upped slightly the chances of survival. She demanded prayers once per day (god or religion irreverent so long as all ceremonies and rituals remained within regulations of acceptable behavior and piety was maintained), penalties for lack of punctuality were harsh, punishments for sloppy uniforms were severe, drinking alcohol or partaking of any other drug on her ship was a good way of getting a checkered shirt, gambling was illegal. She didn't much give a shit to the internal working of the other ships under her command, a ship flies as it captain dictates and so long as it performs to how she believed it should perform then she had no reason to care.

When her second cousin or some such died and the position of head of the family's business became vacant it was given to her at the overwhelming majority vote of the Inheritance Committee that was made up of the elders of the family branches. It takes a special kind of iron will and attitude to run a family and business like the mega-corp of Carlos-McConnell and they believed that she had the "cat-herding" skills to do it.

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Hortensia McConnell had always put her duties to her family above duty to the military, the two up until that point having never come into conflict. It took two years under an interim chairman (one of her many great nephews) whilst she trained up a promising replacement, handed in her notice and settled any lingering business before she would come back home. There was mixed feeling among her crew, that she didn't feel the need to tell until a few days before; one the one hand she was as compassionate and flexible as a brick but on the other hand the ship had run to an almost inhuman smoothness. The officers did have an alcohol-free wine and cucumber sandwiches party to see her off that she attended so it wasn't like she was entirely hated.

The great multitude of greatly varying businesses operating under the authority of the Carlos McConnell name have under her command been shaken up drastically. For one thing great investment has been made in ships, specifically the new Tau Engines that are operating in the Eastern Fringe.

The thing is that as someone who, whilst not terribly high up in the Navy, knew a lot of people that knew a lot of shit and she always was the dependable, reliable up and coming brick. She knows that the Tyranids are coming, she knows that the orks are multiplying and amassing, she knows that the Chaos lunatics are setting forth once more from their dark places and she knows a shit load of other things are coming. She knows that it's all very nice and well for lucrative and profitable endeavors but survival is better than profit. There are going to be a lot of refugees soon, a lot of them and Navigators have always been the limiting factor on warp travel. Refugee convoys don't need to go fast when you have a rows and rows of cryo-coffins, you could even theoretically travel warpless in such a manner.

There was descent among the other branches and heads of the divisions and companies and she has taken the most trustworthy into her confidence and they started to get real fucking quiet when they learned the sheer size of the shit about to hit the fan.

The planet of Carlos McConnell always has substantial McConnell mega-corp assets in orbit by necessity and for convenience but now there seems to be more than ever, especially in terms of armaments and a new shipyard. The story given to the civilian government and the people in general is that the mega-corp is going into the arms business, always lucrative. Of course they don't need to know that if the wolves come to their door they will be geared up for a fight, there won't be a second Souring of Ornsworld, and if the worst does happen then at the very least they can evacuate enough to maintain continuity.

Of the woman herself in her role as head of the McConnell clan and the McConnell mega-corp what can be said? She's much as she was but without a ship, so long as her dictates are followed she doesn't much care for the fine details, unprofitable branches of the family are pruned and members of the house forcibly adopted by more successful branches whilst up and coming prodigies and new talent is encouraged and given resources. She demands punctual and detailed reports and has lashed out violently when things are intentionally omitted. Indeed bad news is far better than blindness to her and inflicted blindness is seen as a direct attack.

She has no children, she's too busy to start a family of her own but sees absolutely no problem in marrying off all young and single members of her house adventitiously. It is her duty to ensure the survival of her family so that she can drag the rest of her homeworld with them.

Her lifestyle hasn't noticeably changed, spartan Navy living remains despite Felinid cultural trends favoring the flaunting of wealth.

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