Gate: Thus, the Kovenant Empire fought there.

Ballad of Italica.

Kommissar Eren could observe what seemed to be a significant force. He started to hum a little, an old childhood tune he had learned long ago as he started counting. Dozens, then hundreds and thousands, and then thousands more. All around the walls of the city that lay before them, all that the man could see were row upon row of armed men, clad in armor and armed with all manner of melee weapons, bows, and crossbows common among them. Yet most of them didn't look the part, most were wearing dirty rags, only a handful had armor them, and depressingly fewer had full sets, worse still was the fact some of them weren't even armed properly, others had pitchforks, some with clubs. Eren gave a nod, these folks look more akin to an armed mob rather than actual soldiers.

Eren let go of his binoculars, letting it swing around his neck. He looked back at his troops, had it not been for the fact he knew they were there, he would have completely missed them. Frontiersmen have a way with the land, some would say one of a supernatural sort, years of experience have taught these frontier troops how to camouflage themselves with practically anything. That was on full display here, their clothes covered in foliage as they observed total silence.

Eren gave a few hand signals, the troops crawled up closer, one of them, a sergeant asked.
"What's the plan, sir?"

"Well, we're here to observe, evaluate, and identify potential sites of interest. As well as identify enemy troop movements... This place fits the bill, based on what our drones are telling us, all roads eventually lead to this place, so, we can make the reasonable assumption that this is a major regional city of some kind, as well as a potential enemy stronghold and supply hub."
He looked at his troops.
"And based on preliminary scans and drone footage, this place seems to hold a reasonably sized population, which would explain the walls. As well as a palace-like structure present, possible to hold some manner of local government... You get the idea, now, let's mark this place as an area of interest, as well as the roads leading to it."

"Yes sir." The sergeant signaled one of the men and that soldier gave orders to one of the drones above to place down beacons. The drones went down to one of the rooves and dropped a small, brick-like device, immediately producing a signal that any Imperial forces could catch.
That done, the sergeant asked.
"Shall we approach the city, sir?"

"No, we stay and observe. How are the other reconnaissance teams?"

"Recon teams 3 and 4 have identified a village not too far from the Gate. Based on what the universal translators say the Village is called Coda, strangely the locals seem to be giving us money, and food, but the recon teams seem to think that they are bribing them to leave the village alone... Stranger still is no more than an hour after their arrival the villagers were begging them to escort them away from the village, something about a dragon of some kind."

"A dragon?" The young Kommissar rubbed his chin. "Well... It certainly isn't the strangest thing the Empire has fought... Nothing compares to fighting demons, Xenos, and Forsakened One Cult armies. What did they do?"

"The recon teams have taken the villagers back to base camp in the middle of the woods and took them prisoner. When I asked why, it was for security reasons. I have been told that they have been given as many provisions as possible and are under constant guard by sentry drones to mask the presence of the recon teams, they told me that they have allowed them to make camps as well."

Kommissar Eren groaned. "Tell them they best treat them well, they've taken them hostage and I can promise you that it won't make us seem reasonable to them."
In some respects, Eren should have expected that. High Command has ordered them to take no chances when it comes to their whereabouts and this can be seen as staying true to that order. Still, taking an entire village hostage is not a good look, the Empire will have to make up for that in some capacity in the future.