[center][b][color=#ED2939][h3][i]HADNAGY[/i] KOUYIALIS, MARKOS[/h3][/color][color=#DAA520]Panayiotou Field, Elvesland, Kingdom of Mitteland[/color][/b][/center]
Turn a corner, and there it was.

Kouyialis had seen a few airships in his time with the Army - Observation Corps had enjoyed them, used balloons here and there, though such had generally been unpowered, tethered, non-rigid designs meant to just be hauled up and down a ground station. They’d always been smaller, too, nothing quite like what he saw before him. No, this was a long type, zeppelin with two distinct gondolas. They’d docked the vessel with a mast in the field, a few tents dotting about its base for the storage of materials and the like. It’d been brought lower to the ground, too, with a number of mooring lines set taut against the ground to further-off stakes, while one of the gondolas had a cargo ramp open.

A few figures dotted here and there, some at the ramp, some at the tents. Further off, near the river Inn, he could see men moving along the bank, set as they were with the other buildings as the water. Those silhouettes, Kouyialis could see rifles and krätzchen caps, distinct enough to be mistaken for very little else; the rifles, though, weren’t shouldered. Something had happened, the [i]Hadnagy[/i] could tell it, and another pass by the eyes told him something else. One of the tents had been caved-in, drooped as it was on one side, while he could pick-out a figure set in one of the gondolas with one of the machineguns. A figure seemed to stand watch at the cargo ramp. Something had happened.

[color=#ED2939]“Company, halt!”[/color]

They came to a rolling stop. The other Lieutenants came up alongside him, jogging the way as the man’s eyes narrowed. Something had happened, and it seemed like the area was at some alert or another. They’d doubtless gotten no word on the order from the [i]Vezérőrnagy[/i], that would make things far too easy, and doubtless again if they had been capable of receiving that word they would have sent word about the problem, whatever it had been, that had forced a tent to be broken and soldiers to be set along the river bank.

“What is it, Kouyialis?” Giorgiou’s cigarette had already been smoked in half, and he took another long pull. His own eyes danced around the scene before them, and the man swallowed.

[color=#ED2939]“Something has happened…and besides, if nothing has, then whoever mans the zeppelin needs to be told on the transfer. Come on. [i]Szakaszvezető[/i]!”[/color]

“Yes, sir!”

[color=#ED2939]“Grab one of those fucking soldiers. At the water’s edge, you see? Have him over here, I want to know what he’s doing.”[/color]

“Sir!”

As the four men started their walk up to the zeppelin, Mihail set off in a brisk run with rifle unslung, held down low to parallel with the ground. He started yelling for one of the men, whoever was in charge of that whole ordeal, maybe a few dozen steps into his run. Kouyialis could see heads turn quick, one of the men turning their head back and forth a few times before starting a lazy jog to the group of [i]Hadnagy[/i]. Mihail turned quick enough to run for the group of men as well, and Kouyialis paused as the man from the river came huffing up.

“Sergeant…Sergeant Amadou, sir.” The man gave a salute as he shouldered his rifle, which was duly returned. He could see from the corner of his eye Mihail coming up soon after, his steps slowing as he came close.

[color=#ED2939]“Sergeant. What has happened? Why are you at the river’s edge?”[/color]

“Sir, I obediently report a man attempted thievery at the airship, and jumped from it onto a tent before escaping to the river. He was shot. We’ve been combing it for him.”

A pause. Already, some fool had tried to steal from it? What in all the stars' names had there been on that thing which had prompted such a quick thievery? What foolishness had there been that…well. That was something else entirely. Kouyialis took a deep breath. [color=#ED2939]“Have the police been notified?”[/color]

“Well, uh…no, sir.”

Another pause. He could hear one of the other men swallow as well. [color=#ED2939]“What’s his description?”[/color]

“Moderate height, brown hair, beard. An Ardellian, sir. ‘James Carter’.”

[i]A fucking new worlder[/i]. Of course. [color=#ED2939]“Send a man to inform the police. Tell them to set outside the Ardellian embassy. Move your men down the current, Sergeant, the Inn isn’t so fucking lazy as to keep garbage where it’s thrown. And ask the fishermen while you’re at it. They pick up trash all the time. You understand?”[/color]

“Yes, sir.”

[color=#ED2939]“Dismissed.”[/color]

“Sir!” And with a salute, the Sergeant had turned about and already started running his way to the handfuls of men along the river. Kouyialis could see them staring for a brief period. Idiots, he swore, about idiots thinking that the river would keep still instead of moving as it does. Even he, a country boy, knew as much as the river current.

Another exhale. [color=#ED2939]“Let’s go, then.”[/color]

They kept walking, walking up to the cargo ramp and the rest of it. Some men seemed to take notice, smoking as they were around a little tin, sitting on various boxes. Others, far less so. Everyone seemed far too relaxed for the idea that some absolute idiot had tried to steal from the airship soon enough that fool soldiers were combing the river's edge. Kouyialis exhaled his anger out at it. He’d need to talk to the man who had decided such was a good idea.

They stopped some ways off from the airship, the Mittelander looking up at the man in the gondola at the machinegun. He called out, giving volume to his voice.

[color=#ED2939]“Who commands this airship? Send them out.”[/color]