Zeke spent a long time modifying his navy crew, so much so that he even forgot he needed to return to the family to explain the situation with his Space Marines.
However, this didn't matter, since Zeke didn't go back, but his father did, didn't he? Based on his father's conjectures, the family chose to tacitly approve of the matter.
Without a doubt, having such an heir might allow the family to advance further.
During the family discussion, some elders even suggested whether to send Zeke the STC template stored within the family so he could properly understand it.
However, this proposal was ultimately opposed by the conservative faction and reserved, as the STC template within the family was too precious to be squandered just yet; it would be better to wait until Zeke inherited the position of high king.
This item would eventually be given to Zeke for research, but current research and future research were different. In the eyes of some, Zeke was still too young and needed more experience.
Once Zeke had more experience and knowledge, the family's STC template would be given to him for research, which would also prevent damage to the STC template during the research process.
After all, this matter required caution; these STC templates were the main reason the family was far stronger than other knight houses.
Zeke was unaware of the contents of that family meeting, but even if he knew, it wouldn't matter, as a vast amount of technology from Stellaris awaited his research and comprehension.
While he was quite interested in some of the Terran Dominion's technology from the Golden Age, the technology possessed by his own Dominion was clearly more powerful.
After a month of Gene Modification, Zeke successfully transformed all of his navy soldiers into humans possessing half the physical capabilities of an Astartes.
This process took a considerably long time, even with a large number of AIs assisting him.
This was because there were simply too many people on the cruiser.
All of this was thanks to the Imperium's resistance to AI, which resulted in such a small light cruiser actually having a full 67,500 Imperial Navy personnel!
This was only the number of Imperial Navy soldiers, not counting their houses and retinue knights.
The Imperium's warships had a fleet culture.
This was almost unforeseen in Stellaris, as even the retaliation-class battleship sent by Zeke's Terran Dominion, despite its massive size, ultimately had only about 1,000 crew members.
The extra workers were handled by mechanical legions, and human crew members were only used for decision-making and issuing commands to AIs.
Under non-essential circumstances, the Terran Dominion would not deploy so many troops on a warship.
After all, in many cases, AIs could handle a lot of things, making such a large deployment unnecessary.
Zeke successfully enhanced 67,500 semi-Astartes troops, and the price for doing so was that he was completely out of money, even emptying his father's private stash.
Poverty.
As an heir to a knight house, he actually felt extremely poor; as the heir to House Yaeger, he felt like he was on the verge of destitution.
To put it bluntly, the money he spent on strengthening his soldiers could even buy two planets in the Imperium.
After completing the Gene Modification for all the soldiers and imbuing them with some skills derived from their genetic level, Zeke woke them all up.
"Everyone, board the ship now. We are preparing to depart for the Calis System."
"Understood!" Thanks to Zeke's Gene Modification, the Imperial Navy officers and soldiers now possessed a considerable degree of combat readiness, which was ingrained in their DNA.
The Terran Dominion might not be as strong as the Imperium of Man in ground combat, and as for Zeke's Terran Dominion, it had barely experienced any landing operations.
However, the Terran Dominion had an advantage that the Imperium of Man could not match.
Space combat was the true domain of the Terran Dominion. In countless battles defeating Xenos and psychic entities, the Terran Dominion relied on its powerful fleet, not its ground forces.
The ground forces in the Terran Dominion were more like a deterrent, used to maintain order and security on planets.
Only when encountering planets that even the Emperor found interesting would the Terran Dominion's ground forces be deployed.
This meant that the ground forces Zeke had genetically modified needed constant training in simulation pods, while the navy did not; they had already successfully become the Dominion Navy.
Although they were not yet as elite as the Terran Dominion's Navy, they were considerably, or rather, several times stronger than the Imperial Navy.
"Board the ship!"
The entire navy began to board the ship, and then, Zeke slowly walked onto the cruiser, once again embarking on interstellar travel.
Around his cruiser were his transport ships, still carrying his personal guard.
The knight titan and other retinue knights, as well as the knight personal guard, were also in those transport ships.
Zeke couldn't just perform Gene Modification on the navy; he also did it for his retinue knights, and specifically added a trait to them.
Strength!
This meant that even with the Gene Modification technology Zeke could currently use, these modified and enhanced retinue knights could even take on four Custodians alone.
And this was not their combat capability when operating a knight titan; it was merely their ability when equipped with the same gear as Custodians. However, if they were equipped with the unique gear Zeke's side possessed, it would be a different story.
The fleet set off once again, and on the knight planet, Grisha watched his son's fleet depart once more, a dark cloud over his head.
Sometimes, he really wanted to curse. In the past few years, his son had been unwilling to leave his small asteroid fortress, basically spending all his time there working on technology unless something important came up. What had gotten into him now?
After finally going out, fighting the orks, and then fighting chaos, his son seemed to have been stimulated. Not only did he not stay in his asteroid base, but he took off again in less than two months.
It was outrageous!
And judging by the direction and position of the fleet's departure, it seemed to be headed for the Calis System.
Grisha's mouth twitched.
He didn't believe his son wouldn't know about the presence of those Tau there.
Combined with his son's troops, if his son's naval warships weren't so few in number, he would have good reason to believe this was an expedition.
Let the bird fly, let the bird fly. The son has grown up; let him go. The old father will just watch from behind.