Adelinde Gantzmann

Born in 2368 to Ludwig and Mia Gantzmann, and as a native daughter of humanity’s homeworld, Adelinde Gantzmann hails from the German territories, thought she considers her United Earth citizenry secondary to her United Federation of Planets citizenry. Adelinde’s early childhood and schooling was unremarkable considering the talent she was surrounded by as a native of Earth where the truly talented are considered to be ‘above average’. Her mother served at the time as part of the Bavarian State Police while her father was a researcher for a number of local museums, his speciality being in Earth’s more violent periods, especially the Eugenics War and WWIII that followed.

Upon graduating high school Adelinde informed her parents of her intent to follow several of her friends in joining Starfleet, though she did earn her mother’s approval when she made clear her intention to enter into the Operations track, with the goal of going into Security. Her father however was unimpressed and attempted on multiple occasions to convince his only child to quit the Academy and return home where she could study something more befitting her talents as he saw them.

Unswayed by these attempts and determined to follow through, she threw herself into her studies to become a Security and Tactical specialist. Her goal was to essentially follow in her mother’s footsteps but at a higher level. She didn’t want to be policing the same territory and people day in and day out – she wanted to see the stars, to explore the galaxy but at the same time keep the people of the Federation safe from any internal and external threats in as compassionate a manner as possible.

It was during her second year that Adelinde found a love for historical combat methods and tactics, adding numerous history papers and martial arts classes to her required course loads to satisfy her hunger for additional knowledge that she found fascinating. This expansion of her studies to include history did please her father somewhat. The highlight of that year, as part of a course being taught by a Professor Parker, was a demonstration for the Academy on the effectiveness, in a non-powered combat regime, of the phalanx formation across the Academy’s parade grounds. On a whim the entire class had hoplite shields made up in Academy blue with their expected year of graduation upon the front under the Academy logo, an artifact that Adelinde still holds onto to this day.

Upon her graduation in 2390, Adelinde was assigned to the USS Nunavet, a Parliament class vessel whose duties included patrols along the Cardassian border to enforce customs regulations, engage in anti-smuggling and anti-piracy activities and naturally provide assistance when and where needed by the citizens of the Federation. On no less than three separate occasions within her first year did a young Ensign Gantzmann find herself in incidents aboard civilian freighters where the crews took exceptions to inspections. The second of these situations was where she earned her first Letter of Commendation for the defence of Lieutenant James Polack, the Nunavet’s Chief of Security, who had been injured by an ambush from three crewmembers of a civilian freighter attempting to defend their smuggling operation.

In a subdued after-action report, Adelinde simply documented that after the freighter crewmembers had attacked Lieutenant Polack, she undertook actions to defend her superior officer and to prevent the ambushers from being able to conduct any further harm. With no witnesses able to recall what happened aside from Adelinde, the medical reports afterwards serve as the documented efficacy of Adelinde as a close quarters combatant.

Serving until 2393 aboard the USS Nunavet, Adelinde took the opportunity for a transfer with a promotion to the newly refitted USS New Zealand, a Century class starship that was about to embark on a three-year journey beyond the Cardassian Union. It was during this time Adelinde came under the tutelage of one Commander T’val, who worked with her to smooth off the edges of a newly minted Lieutenant Junior Grade and teach the guiding principles she’d been using for years to guide and educate junior officers. Adelinde’s desire to explore the universe was satisfied during this mission where she participated in a minor capacity in no less then three first contact scenarios, undertook dozens of away missions in lieu of Commander T’val and made friends with which to this day she maintains regular communications with.

Of note on her record is actions undertaken during an incident with a species called the Ganorites who had taken a survey team captive and were attempting to blackmail Captain Rātana into supplying them weapons technology for a regional conflict they were engaged in. Unwilling to comply with the Ganorite forces in this situation, Captain Rātana had ordered Commander T’val to devise a rescue plan which consisted of three teams of four personnel working in concert to draw fire, raid their camp for the hostages and a third team to provide assistance as required.

Assigned to lead the support team, LtJG Gantzmann distinguished herself when calls for reinforcements were sent out by both teams when they encountered heavier then expected opposition. Quickly coming to a decision Adelinde ordered her team to go and support the extraction team and proceeded by herself to support the distraction team. Aware of the terrain, she came at the team from a wide flank, engaging their opposition where they had minimal cover, but she herself was forced to enter into closer range of them then was originally planned as acceptable. Knowing a drawn-out phaser fight would be disadvantageous for herself, Adelinde took the risky option of overloading her phaser and using it as a makeshift grenade in order to flush the defenders out and allow her fellow officers to stun them and push forward to support the extraction team.

In the end her plan worked and the crew of the USS New Zealand only had minor injuries to account for when they returned to the ship having rescued their fellows. While it was noted that Adelinde had suffered the loss of her weapon, her quick thinking, decisive action and application of exacting force in a given situation was supported by her department head and commanding officer.

Upon the New Zealand’s return to the Federation in 2398, delayed in their return by the spirit of exploration and a couple of planetary crises in the Cardassian Union on their way home they were able to assist with, Adelinde was granted a compassionate leave of absence for six months and a promotion to Lieutenant for her performance during the last three years. This was because of the death of her father in an unfortunate accident while she was in transit back to Earth for leave. In the end however she only took an extra three weeks beyond her original leave period, at her own insistence and supported by three counsellors.

With no current orders due to the Bureau of Personnel expecting her to be delayed from returning to service for a few more months, Adelinde took the opportunity to peruse upcoming missions and apply for positions on the crews of those ships on her own recognisance, wishing to choose her own path but at the same time wishing to get back out amongst the stars. The ‘bug’ to explore and see what was out there had been previously feed and was now starting to hunger.

Her first pick was ultimately the one she was selected for – the USS Atlantis, whose upcoming mission was to take it deep into the Delta Quadrant. After a brief interview with the ship’s commanding and executive officers as the ship was still coming together after a refit, she was assigned as the ship’s Chief of Security and Tactical and was allowed to be the primary selector and interviewer for her department before the ship’s mission began.