Miranda was pushing her way through the crowd that filled the impromptu habitation complex towards the ship. Halfway through, she met Sergeant Solothurn, who, just like her, was struggling through the mass of bodies, some malnourished, others injured.
“I hoped I could get there before they landed, but this...” he gestured at the horde surrounding them, “is something I forgot to account for.”
“No last-minute information about the cargo or passengers?”
He shook his head, pushing a man in his fifties aside. “Nada. But if I were to guess, they are just a supply run.”
“What’s with all the secrecy, then?”
“I dunno. Is it secrecy, or a-” He got cut short when he tripped over a small child. “Or just a bureaucratic debacle? MAKE WAY, damn it! Security coming through.”
 
After a few more minutes, they reached the Scythian. The crowd grew denser and denser seemingly with each passing step. Ten or so people were pushing their way towards the administration building, clad in full armor.
“So much for a relief ship, take a look at that lot.” Miranda pointed the group out to Solothurn. “Now we have a small invasion force running loose around the place.”
“Three more standing guard near the ship. At least three, that is. I’m starting to smell an official visit. As if something could happen to them here. Like people have nothing better to do all day than hunt down visiting high ups. I wonder who’s Mr. Important of the day?”
“I’d rather not know.” she growled, “What I do wonder about is why they are here in the first place?”
“It was a matter of time before someone came to claim the grand prize.” David said, pointing upwards.
“Don’t start with that. I wish that was stuck on an escape vector. Well, you go deal with whatever they brought here, I’ll go have a chat with someone responsible.” she waved him off and watched as he approached the NAVY officer organising the supplies. [i]”If i can find them, that is.”[/i] she thought.
 
She approached the ship, walking beside the line waiting for the rations, earning a few angry glances and remarks, some people apparently thought she was skipping ahead to get their rations. She couldn’t blame them. She found a crewman that wasn’t doing anything at the moment.
“Excuse me.” she tapped his shoulder with a false smile, “Do you mind pointing me towards your commanding officer, or at least someone responsible for your cargo?” The crewman tried to excuse himself, but she stepped into his path, her friendly expression now gone and replaced by a mix of annoyance and held-back anger.
“We haven’t received your loadsheet prior to your arrival. This theoretically means no crew, personnel or cargo may leave this landing pad until our officers take a thorough look through this metal kite of yours. Seeing as some of your people are already running around, how about you point me towards someone with authority over this barge so we can sort this out without making a huge fuss about it. Not sure if you noticed over the glare of your sparkling clean uniform, but we have enough crap to deal with as it is, we certainly don’t need more.”
 
The crewman pointed her to where he last saw the Scythian’s second in command and gave her a rough description before she let him go and headed out of the landing bay and towards the infirmary. As she neared the door, a Gulin, hauling four stretchers at once, left the building and headed for the Scythian. The sight made her chuckle. She stared at him in amusement for a few seconds before turning back to the infirmary.