a part of the BAHCs duties is to catalog the fauna and flora of the planets. exploration is the key to knowledge and BAHC wants to be the one providing the assistance and supplies to make it happen. by assistance, they mean BAHC employees. they monopolize the expedition whether thats in-field surveying or off field data cataloging, theres always at least 100 BAHC on field at any given moment. gneiss is an in-field surveyor, he cooperates with the rest of the employees to get samples and specimens for the BAHC scientists to study on board the ship. The BAHC hasnt gotten the supplies from the ship to take the surveying underwater, so at the moment, gneiss and his team are surveying the 6% of land that binary I does have. gneiss is actually an iyacan from halx 21185 C, the aforementioned barren planet. i will eventually write more on this later but let it be known. halx 21185 C is barren because its spire died and the BAHC originally picked him up as a specimen.

the BAHC always believes knowledge is a just cause so its not unusual that they pick up new recruits from the planets they survey. specimens are usually given an option to either join the cause or be returned to their homeplanet. gneiss just never had the option of returning considering its dead. another notable recruit theyve picked up is a selkas named oron.

oron is a selkas kin (selkie) that chose to join the cause. his seal-like curiosity lent him a continued position as an infield indexer. he was not relocated to binary I like gneiss. he was instead given course at binary II. unfortunately, binary IIs temperature is very inhospitable for a glacial dweller like oron. the hottest part of BII is 334f and the coldest, -369f. the average in the survivable zone ranging between -12f to 110f. however, most native dwellers have settled along temps of 85-94f (variation depending on the season). they dont settle at any lower because its not viable.

narrative commentary: the BAHC prides itself on indexing unqiue and fascinating species, but anything closer than obeserving species is a farce. nothing is wrong with the data or the method of collection. the conflict with the BAHC lies with indoctrinating species to join the cause and they become enmeshed in the organization. the BAHC excels at organizing, to get a massive organization of massively different idividuals to work as one entity requires a strict hand. individuality is celebrated until it affects work productivity, you're here to be a BAHC scientist, to toil.