The Orion Alliance is proud to welcome you into its prestigious Scout Corps. As you know, all good space-faring species are monolithic. Each member speaks the same language, holds the same customs, wears the same style of dress, practices the same religions (if at all), and holds the same political and social values as all other members of their species. This makes interstellar cultural interactions easy as one instantly knows just what motivates a particular alien and how to interact with them. Grabbons, as we all know, are a warrior race who only care about violence and glory. Remites are all duplicitous. Magmites are dispassionate and precise. Narbians are greedy and self-serving. This makes identifying a unified approach when dealing with other species easy for the Orion Alliance. However, not all space-faring species are as monolithic as we, and this poses a real problem for the Diplomatic Corps, as you can imagine.
The Scout Corps was created to slip undetected into these polylithic societies, gather as much data as possible, and then bring the information back to the Diplomatic Corps analysts who will then aggregate it all together to aid the High Council in determining the best course of action when dealing with these worlds in the future.
You have been assigned to observe Sector 491 System 34-BX.3 Species 87 (491:34-BX.3:87), commonly known as “hyoomins” from the planet they call “Urth” or “Urf.” This is perhaps the least monolythic species we have ever seen, at least at their level of advancement. As such, you should interpret your assignment not as some punishment for its difficulty, but as a measure of the tremendous faith the High Council has placed in your abilities. You are permitted to conduct your field observations alone or in small groups as circumstances necessitate.