A desperate corporate employee turns Barish-Estranza's SecUnits against his supervisor, choosing murder and forcible indenture over returning without a contract.
Adelsen is one of Supervisor Leonide's Barish-Estranza subordinates in the Polar Settlement. He attends the final meeting after the colonists watch the university documentary and order both delegations to leave.
While Leonide speaks with Iris, Adelsen draws a sidearm and fires at his supervisor's back. Murderbot diverts the shot into her shoulder and disables Adelsen with an energy pulse, but he has already revoked Leonide's SecUnit command codes and initiated a broader plan to seize the colonists by force. He accuses Leonide of caring more for promotion than the consequences her team will suffer if it returns without the contract. Iris takes his weapon and threatens him until he supplies the manual shutdown command for the first attacking SecUnit.
An adult corporate employee of unspecified age, skin tone, hair, facial features, and build, wearing a red-brown Barish-Estranza environmental suit and carrying a small projectile sidearm.
Adelsen is the mutiny's visible instigator, revealing that corporate pressure has pushed Leonide's own personnel toward murder and mass abduction.