I don't wanna spoil it but trust me she is very stressed during that flathead quest and has very good reason to be stressed.
You would be stressed too if your life was on the line because you keep screwing up, regardless of how incompetent you think your help is. That entire interaction is in the 48 minute demo, too, so what do you know that no one else does? I haven't watched it in awhile, but I don't feel sorry for her in the slightest... I will definitely help her, though.
And there is also this;
Well, maybe it's worth mentioning... since we're talking about rumors... that Meredith is killed and replaced by a male corpo if you fail that initial mission in one way or another, because I guess her bosses aren't too thrilled with her lack of progress.
Wouldn't be surprised, either. She puts on a strong front with her belligerent attitude, but it comes off as vulnerability to me, not just because of her past relationship problem.
...
And, I just watched it again, the above rumor kind of puts that whole scene into perspective, because the one guy that is being held by her is telling her she's already dead, implying that either she had a hand in some situation/business deal that went wrong, or the mole she talks about put the blame on her in some way and she needs to get rid of the gang to cover it up. Actually kind of sounds like she is/was making some moves at the expense of other corpo's to get promoted, but it backfired hard, so you're basically saving her ass there.