Zeppelin was not one to ignore a call for help. Considering her position, it would have made more sense to send someone over to see how things were. But alas the SOS came at a time when her crew was out on their own mission. Thus the burden of responding to the call fell on the Commodore herself. Truth be told, it would be her first major outing that she would personally handle since moving up. That was not really a bad thing. She had to keep her skills sharp. After all she did not get promoted for sitting down and giving orders all day. The source of the SOS was an island on the edge of the South Blue, Karate Island. This would be her first time coming here as it was widely known to be a place outside the influence of Marines. There were no government bases around and the locals were not too friendly to Marines in general. For this reason, Zeppelin stayed aboard her ship until the rest who would respond to the call started arriving.

Speaking of arriving, the ship that just docked did not quite look like a Marine ship and so it almost instantly caught her attention. She was reading a book on deck of her ship but found herself pausing and standing up as she watched the new arrivals park their boat. The crew on the unsual ship's deck looked distinctly Marine though so thankfully there was no cause for concern. They seemed very eager to participate in the mission as they wasted no time getting off the ship. Feeling she ought to move out as well, she made her way down to the docks going inland, leaving her crew to watch the ship.

The Marines present would stop near an old man who seemed to have been expecting and waiting for them. Quickly looking around, Zeppelin would find an assortment of characters present, including a man whom she had met some time ago. He was actually a Marine? That was interesting, but it made sense from the things that she saw him do in their previous meeting. There would be plenty of time to catch up and say hello later. For now she would wait for the old man to speak.

Zeppelin listened carefully as the old man described the situation. It was something about at least two villages on the island being taken over. The man neglected to say by whom but whoever it was had enough power to defeat a Rear Admiral. That was the next step above her wasn't it? This was possibly a good opportunity then to see how she measured up. Not that she was heartless or anything, but she also did not hear why the Marines appeared to be overly concerned about the well-being of this island despite not being too welcome around those parts. It's not like the organization was benevolent. The sad truth was typically for things like this, there was something in it for the other party. It then hit her that one purpose of the operation might have been to gain favor with the people and finally allow them a foothold on the island.

With the briefing over, the Marines present divided themselves into two units to see to both villages at once. The group in front of her however split themselves up in the weirdest way. One team was significantly larger while the other only had but a handful of soldiers. The brave few were led by the man she had met before who, from the conversation they had among themselves, was identified as Ensign Derous. The bigger team was led by a man they called Commander Steele. She had never met this commander before but he seemed to be someone who carried himself with importance. She deduced that the unusual groupings may have been related to the capabilities of the ones in each team. In which case it implied that the ensign was the more capable and powerful man between the two and thus the teams were not as uneven as she first thought. After weighing her options, she decided to travel with the bigger group. She felt that if the group's strength relied on their numbers then it was more prone to falling apart should the enemy prove to be an exceptional tactician. Seeing as an entire battalion was defeated prior, it was safe to assume that might have been the case. She hoped the ensign was as capable as she figured he was and wished him the best of luck on his end.

Night had fallen by the time they arrived at the path leading up to the village. Whether or not this would be to their advantage remained to be seen. The plan was apparently to keep out of sight and wait for a chance to strike under the cover of darkness. But unfortunately for them, the enemy was wise enough to see through this. Up ahead, a barricade of some sort was set up. Five large shield-like things were set up on the path with an unknown amount of unfriendlies hiding behind them. Imprinted on the shields was what was unmistakably a jolly roger. So the enemy was pirates? Nonetheless the enemy was impressing her with the care taken in fending off their assault. Now if they were really waiting to intercept them here then it would be safe to assume that the battlefield was setup in exactly the way they wanted it, putting the Marines at a disadvantage. The commander made the right call to scout them out from above before doing anything rash.

It was at this point that Zeppelin felt it was her time to shine. She had been quiet the whole trip there as she didn't want to interrupt the chain of command even though she was probably the highest ranked officer in that group. The commander had not done anything she disapproved of yet so she allowed him to take the lead. Before she could make her move though, someone else eagerly responded to the Steele's instructions. It was a devil fruit user who was conveniently what they needed -  a bird zoan. Flying up, the Raven-man scattered his feathers all over the enemy to throw them into disarray. It looked like this group was not as underpowered as she had first thought.

Still she was not going to let herself be outdone. There were more mysteries to this battlefield than the number of their enemies. Upon closer observation, the ground between them and the barricade was strangely uneven and lumpy at some points. Surely a path leading to a village was better maintained than this. Something was up and it would be a folly not to check things out. With nothing but a thought, she summoned five of her ghosts at her side. Two of them were sent to the enemy ranks to reconfirm the number of enemies present before swiftly returning. Meanwhile two others inspected the ground, phasing through it to see if there was anything concealed underneath. As Zeppelin shared their sight, she would be instantly made aware of anything they find. The last ghost she summoned was flying overhead, watching the area behind the group in case someone tried to attack them from there. You could never be too careful. The cover of the night worked both ways after all.