“The defecation has just hit the ventilation, sir.” she replied to the director’s inquiry, shouting over the rioting masses, “The crowd has turned into a bloody melee, it looks like they are trying to get to whatever food and medicine still remains, attacking everyone in their reach as if to clear a path and remove competition. Someone threw a petrol bomb and hit the crowd and two crewmen, we have blunt and sharp weapons in the crowd, even a few firearms by the sound of it! We are also taking fire from an unknown position, there are at least three casualties among the Scythian’s crew and too-fucking-many injured civvies already. We don’t have the manpower to hold them back, and if someone brings more petrol bombs, it will get even nastier.” she summed up the situation as best as she could before moving to possible solutions. “If we can get crowd control teams with riot shields to block all but one or two escape routes and push, the crowd will lose their will to fight and scatter. If not, they’ll have to push a little more. So far, we are holding the Scythian, but we can’t keep up forever. But if we can’t disperse the crowd, we might have to take a more drastic course of action.”

Only a few times in her life has she felt as powerless as she did now. She could have tried talking some sense into them - before the riot started. Could she have done so? Maybe the people would have listened. But what about the sniper? She knew the people were far from happy, but didn’t expect it to be this bad. But if the shooter and the riot were not related, then there was still hope. If this was, indeed, organized, and they couldn’t pick out the people behind it in the crowd, a baton charge might be the only possible solution left. Another thing Miranda was worried about was the fallout of this incident and ways to prevent it in the future. A few ideas were already brewing in her mind. A security team posted in the landing bay every time a ship was inbound for start. And restricting civilian access to said ships, only the unloading crews, would prevent large crowds from forming. Better to first unload the supplies, hand them out later. Likely close to the infirmary.

The crowd kept advancing toward the ship, gaining ground inch by inch. Miranda rushed over to the marine closest to her. “We have backup on its way, but I don’t think they can get here before they...” she motioned toward the human mass in front of them, “...tear us apart. If we lock ourselves inside the ship, it would give the rapid response more time to react, maybe the riot would evel lose its momentum.” A glass object landed about a meter behind them, shattering on impact. Fortunately, there was no fireball. “Unless you have a better idea. In that case, speak quickly.”