Ecological Cataloger

Your job was pretty simple. If the planet's native flora and fauna had been cataloged in the past those records had been lost. It was your job to remake them. You would be venturing into the wild jungle and gathering samples. Analyzing those samples and genetically modifying them to be useful to humans would be the work of the colonies scientists but coming up with the vernacular names would mostly be up to you. You'd been provided with a set of armor and a basic laser pistol to protect you from the local predators but you likely wouldn't have to use the latter. The reason for that was right behind you.

"Nervous?" She asked, as you took a deep breath and finally stepped off the shuttle. As you left the air conditioned ship you felt the humid air assail you. Quickly making your way to the bottom of the ramp and stepping aside as to not block the way down. You turned to look at your companion.

When you'd first met Jessie you had to admit you'd been intimidated. You'd met soldiers before but she was something else, as a member of the UCA Marines she was a member of one of the few military branches in human space whose primary mission statement was the taking of life rather than its creation or preservation. A platoon of them had been assigned to the colony to ensure its protection from the nonhuman foes of the wildlife. Jessie had specifically been assigned to protect you while you did your job away from the main colony.

You had to admit she made you feel safer, a tall woman at 6'0 she was wearing a suit of semi powered armor, her helmet currently preventing you from seeing her neck length dark brown hair and green eyes. Her armor wasn't one of the sets made by the Swiss that could be locked down in the formal fighting that occurred between most armies, she had one of those as well just in case, but this one was made for war. Real war. Just like the large combat rifle she easily held in her hand as she casually scanned the area. Already her counterparts were scattered around the colony, setting up sonic defenses meant to keep the animals away. They wouldn't hesitate to shoot if they had to but the goal was to not render any lifeforms extinct.

"Come on, lets go find our prefab." You said walking away without answering her question you knew she was smiling behind her visor as she followed you. The initial colony had been set up in advance by an engineering team that had arrived shortly before you. They were already off world heading home. Behind them they'd left a small town with a mixture of labs and residence buildings. They were laid out in a simple grid pattern and you pulled up your map on your handheld to lead you to your home. Originally you'd had a regular housemate like everyone else assigned. Supposedly someone matched to your personality in hopes that the two of you would hook up and populate the colony. She'd instead decided to live with a couple of friends which had left her room vacant. Jessie had heard about the empty room and had gotten permission to live with you due to how closely the two of you would be working together.

It didn't take long to find your home. You were on the 'outskirts' of the colony to allow you easier access to the jungle. The basic road that went through the colony ended rather abruptly at the dense foliage 100 meters away. As the two of you approached the simple two story structure where you would be living for at least 5 Earth years you felt a brief flash of homesickness. It was quickly overwhelmed by excitement however as you walked in the door. The layout was equally simple as the exterior. The bottom floor had a kitchen with a food fabber, a general living room area and two bedrooms, the top floor had a small lab set up for you to do your cataloging as well as the master bedroom and two additional rooms that could either be storage or additional bedrooms. The reason they included so many was obvious but you didn't intend to get knocked up anytime soon. Something Jessie obviously understood as she claimed one of the downstairs bedrooms, leaving you to move into the main one.

It didn't take long for the logistics drones to bring your luggage and equipment to the house. By the time you and Jessie had finished offloading it there was still plenty of daylight remaining. Perfect for if you wanted to get started right away. Or perhaps you could go to the town center and meet with some of those you'd be working with. Maybe something else?