First thing he realized he felt when he came to was pain. A groggy kind of pain. Like, his head was going to kill him, his legs were bruised, but he wasn't going to feel it until later. The second thing he realized is the pod stopped moving.

His eyes opened to a smoke filled compartment. The computer interface was smashed, and he realized they must have taken more damage than expected on the way down.

Thomas Patel reached out and stretched his arms. They were sore, but not broken. He tried to look down at his legs, but he was still strapped to the pod's chair. He reached for his buckle and undid it.

He could barely see out of his helmet. It was his first time as a pioneer, and he was unsure how long it took other pioneers to get used to it.

He reached up and pulled the emergency release hatch. The door hissed opened, but it failed to open completely. Cursing, he pushed harder and the door creaked open.

Thomas fell out onto the ground. He was happy to see grass on the planet. Maybe the air would be breathable after all?

Looking up, he was relieved to see a fairly normal terrestrial planet. The drop pod had landed in a field with grass and wildflowers. They were on the edge of a forest, with tall trees stretching into the sky. Beside him he could see more patches of forests further on. A large mountain loomed in the distance.

He looked to the sky, and his heart dropped. The sky was all wrong. Looking into the sky he saw a massive, looming planet. A star blazed in the sky. He couldn't see the satellites. The Space stations. The massive starliners!

He looked around him. There is no way. Is that why there was so little snow? His heads up display read it was almost 25 degrees Celsius!

Was he...?

Behind him, a hiss and a spurt of compressed air jolted Thomas back to the pod. A side door was tossed aside, and crashed into the grass not far away. A body fell from the door, plopping onto the ground. Thomas gave a startled yelp, but composed himself better.

The body moaned, and slowly the arms moved to lift themselves up. They were wearing a standard ficsit pioneer suit. Thomas sighed.

"Uhm, hello!" said Thomas, before shaking his head and turning on his speaker system so his voice would travel beyond his helmet, "Uhm, Hello there! You."

"Oh?" the person stood and stretched, "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes. I thought I'd be alone!"

"Excuse me," said Thomas, "I'm not seeing the... base. Where's the response team?"

"You tell me, Foreman..." the figure looked Thomas up or down, "Wait a damn minute. Are you a man?"

"I... uhm..." Thomas stumbled at the question, "Of course I am."

"Aww... shoot. I thought all Pioneers were female!" said the figure, "What are the odds I'm assigned the only other male in lightyears!"

"Wait, I'm not a Pioneer," said Thomas, "No, wait: If all Pioneers are female... aren't you a female?"

"I'm non-binary, partner," said the pioneer, "Or at least that is what it says in my profile. You see, Pioneers make more, get cooler equipment, and spend years out alone at the far reaches of space. Just them and their projects, their foreman, and... each other. I was hoping to get lucky, or at least get paid a ton."

"You can't be serious," said Thomas, "Look, I don't think we're on Abraxis-7."

"Haha, nope!" said the figure, "What kind a foreman didn't read the mission statement before getting in the pod?"

"I'm not a foreman," said Thomas, "I am Thomas Patel, PHD. Doctor, if you would."

"Ah, medical man," said the person, "Could be useful."

"No... I'm a psychological analyst by trade," said Thomas, "Look, you said 'nope' earlier."

"What use do we have for a psycho on this job?" asked the figure.

"I'm not a... I'm with HR." said Thomas, "Assigned to Abraxis-7. I am needed at the installation to overlook the advanced proc-"

"Again! Abraxis-7? Wooo-Weee. Do you know where you are?" asked the man.

"NO!" said Thomas, "But I was assigned-"

"Boy, you done messed UP!" said the man, "You are a long, long way from Abraxis-7. Boy, this is Massage-2!"

"Massage... 2?"

"Massage-2(A-B)b, if yer fancy," said the man, "You, sir, are at the Horizon of humanoid space. You are a part of 'Project: Assembly' now, son."

"Wait, like... Pioneer-Pioneers? The Project: Assembly?" Thomas' heart started to race, "I... no there's been a mistake! I can't be here!"

"Oh, crapola," said the other man, "You really ain't a foreman at all? Shoot. We must've landed with another pod or two. Must be a big team."

"Wait, wait!" said Thomas, his breath coming quicker, "I... I can't be on the frontier! It's... dangerous! There's supernovas and astrological events and creatures!"

"BUGS!" said the other man, "Big-uns if we're unlucky."

"I... I have to leave!" said Thomas, "There's been a mistake!"

"That there has, pencil-pusher," said the other man, "But there's no 'going back'."

"What do you mean?"

"God, didn't you listen to any of orientation?"

"I didn't TAKE orientation!" said Thomas, "I'm not supposed to BE HERE! I took my HR orientation before going into stasis and they were going to touch on the rest when we touched down!"

"Well, let me give ya a little crash-course, amigo," said the man, walking closer and putting his heavy gloved hand on Thomas' shoulder, "The ship is gone. They got other stops ter-make. They dropped off a team, or two, and left. We got a few years to set up a hub, build a space telescope to connect to the satellite link in orbit-"

"What? No!"

"And start the collecting of resources fer Project: Assembly."

"It can't be!"

"Now, we wouldn't've been ejected if there weren't a foreman awake and conscious to authorize our landing trajectory, so there has to be a foreman somewhere on this rock close by."

"I'm going to die out here."

"Now we gotta bulk up, fortify, and prepare to make a journey," said the man, "Don't worry, now. I mostly paid attention in class. I got the gist of what we need to do."

"I'm going to die..."

"This here drop pod has everything we need to build a hub and start gathering resources for expansion," said the man, "Ours is a big boy, several spaces for crews and the like. It means there's gotta be a big team, our foreman apart of 'em."

"Please... no..."

"Now just take a breath and we'll figure out how to open the hub and get our bearings. If we find the Foreman, they will have everything we need to get to work."

The man slapped Thomas on the back, and started walking to the pod.

"We can do this! We're apart of the greatest space ferring company to underbid all others in the pursuit of human space interests!" said the man, "I won't let you die, Tommy boy! We got our whits. We got our training. We got Mike Gunn, legendary driller of oil, and of ladies!"

"I'm so fucked..."

"and we got only... a few hours until it gets dark," said the man identified as Mike, "Before we're dinner for some critter in that, there woods."

"Critter? Dinner?" Thomas turned around, and stared, terrified, into the shadows of the trees.

"Of course, lookit all these trees and stuff, life makes the greatest resources, friend," said Mike, "There's bound to be critters running around of one size or another. But there's nothing to fear! We're both manly, burly men types. And we will dominate this world! We'll soon be the masters of this planet, and soon... drill her into birthing out beloved baby of Project: ASSEMBLY!"

Thomas was shaking like a leaf. His eyes darted all around him. The visor of his helmet began to fog. His knees quaked.

And right in front of Mike, he slowly leaned back until gravity took him and he crashed down to the ground behind him. He was out cold, lying there.

Mike looked down at him, before looking around at the forest.

"Oh, boy," said Mike, "This... this is not how I pictured this in muh head. Not... quite..."