Two days later, inside Zeke's Royal Court hall, six retinue knights stood in neat formation.
Behind them were their respective auxiliary forces—
2,000 elite guards provided by the family, equipped with finely crafted power armour and plasma weapons.
It was clear that these were not auxiliary troops that his retinue knights could have assembled; this was absolutely a guard unit his father had equipped for him.
This unit, to some extent, could definitely be called an elite force; ordinary Astra Militarum would likely be defeated if they encountered this unit.
After all, these were the private forces of a knight house, and these private forces had been rigorously trained, but at this moment, this rigorously trained army was staring dumbfounded at the army behind Zeke.
What did they see? They saw 10,500 cans.
They saw 500 soldiers in power armour they had never seen before standing behind their heir.
And behind those 500 unknown power armour soldiers stood a full 10,000 Space Marines in ceramite power armour?
"This... this is impossible!" the voice of Algernon, the retinue knight Captain, trembled in the comms channel, "My Lord, where did you get so many Space Marines?"
"We're not mistaken, are we? How can there be so many Angels of the Emperor here?"
Ceramite power armour is generally only equipped by Space Marines, and it was precisely this point that made them immediately identify the soldiers behind Zeke as Space Marines.
A space marine appearing on a knight house's knight planet was not a problem; even a dozen wouldn't be a problem, after all, they were the Yaeger knight House.
But what in the world was this operation of having a full ten thousand Space Marines standing behind their Lord?
It couldn't be that several Astartes Chapters had all come here, could it?
And even if they did come, why did the Space Marines on the other side have a single-headed aquila marking that they couldn't quite understand?
What kind of symbol was a red single-headed aquila? Why had they never seen it before?
Zeke's knight titan slowly turned, the family crest engraved on its shoulder plates gleaming under the lights. "Algernon, watch your words."
His voice, transmitted through the titan's loudspeaker, carried a metallic, cold quality, "These are not Space Marines; these are my personal forces, my guards, do you understand?"
"To put it simply, they are just like the planetary defence forces, not Space Marines at all. At most, they are just a little better equipped, nothing to worry about."
Zeke's words stopped there, but his retinue knights did give him a reminder: the single-headed red aquila of the Terran Dominion was indeed a bit inappropriate.
Since he was in the Imperium, and his combat power wasn't strong enough, it was better to align with the Imperium first.
Zeke quietly informed his guard forces behind him from within his knight titan, and with just a small operation, the surface of their armor directly changed to the Imperial Aquila symbol.
A very simple camouflage paint technology allowed any pattern to be displayed directly on the armor.
"Alright everyone, don't have so many questions. I didn't call you here to ask me questions, but simply to find a battlefield on a colony to get some practice."
"If I remember correctly, House Yaeger has 20 days left before we depart for Cadia. It's a real war, a very risky war, and you haven't cooperated with me before, so I need you to cooperate with me once."
"We need to avoid any unnecessary problems arising from poor cooperation between us when we truly step onto the battlefield."
Zeke's words pulled their attention back. Seeing the warriors in front of them again, and all the symbols now being indistinguishable from the Imperial Aquila, they rubbed their eyes, thinking they had mistaken the red aquila they had seen earlier; it must not have existed.
After all, who could paint the Imperial double-headed aquila directly onto these ceramite armors at such speed?
Zeke didn't pay too much attention to their psychological changes. Instead, from within his knight titan, he transmitted a new map to them—the star map of their family's Yaeger Star System.
The power of House Yaeger and the great contributions they had made to the God-Emperor had earned the entire knight house this star system, and this star system had a total of 4 colonies.
Of these 4 planets, one was a forge world of the Adeptus Mechanicus, one was the home world of the Yaeger knight House, another was an agri-world, and one was a Hive World.
The agri-world and House Yaeger's knight planet both belonged to House Yaeger, while the Adeptus Mechanicus's forge world naturally belonged to the Adeptus Mechanicus.
As for the only Hive World, it coincidentally belonged to no one.
The main reason, of course, was that there were a large number of greenskins on that Hive World.
Those greenskins required a large number of troops to suppress, so the knight house didn't need such a planet.
After all, although knight titans were powerful, as the core strength of the family, how could they be used casually?
Knight titans also needed good maintenance.
If House Yaeger truly controlled that Hive World, it wouldn't be very significant for House Yaeger.
In fact, since it would become their territory, the family would need to protect its people there and also deploy a large number of knights to suppress those greenskins, which would undoubtedly not be a good thing.
The Adeptus Mechanicus, needless to say, would never want to find greenskins to keep them company.
This led to the peculiar situation where, within an entire star system with 4 colonies, one colony belonged to neither the Adeptus Mechanicus nor the knight house.
This was an odd sight, but the existence of this planet was also inseparable from the knight house.
The descendants of House Yaeger needed training, and what training could be more suitable than real, live combat?
None.
Therefore, the reason why the greenskins on that Hive World had never been able to destroy the Hive City was also because the knight house kept them there to temper their descendants.
Every year, House Yaeger would mobilize the family's knights to conduct a large-scale sweep of the greenskins on the Hive World, eliminating the strongest of their leaders, and then send their own family descendants there for training.
And unfortunately, although they were to set off in 20 days, the family's annual greenskin sweep had not yet been carried out, so Zeke planned to go there to practice against the greenskins.
Although the greenskins there had not been cleared by the family, Zeke was not afraid.
If he, protected by 10,000 Space Marines and 500 Custodians, were still afraid of some greenskins, then the Imperium might as well cease to exist.
Upon receiving the new map sent by Zeke and the marked locations, the retinue knights all became excited.
Compared to Zeke, who had been researching on an asteroid, the other ordinary nobles were not as comfortable as he was.
Zeke could sneak away without having to recite the family's epic, but they couldn't; they had to do it.
Therefore, going to war was a rare holiday for them.
Other retinue knights had already gone on holiday with their knights several times, and they were the most miserable.
Zeke hadn't taken them out since he linked with his knight titan, and he hadn't even participated in the fixed activity of other retinue knights and knights: patrolling their territory.