I woke up with a strange feeling invading my senses.

At first I thought it was a C'tan or some kind of mental parasite, but then I realized what really happened.

My wife Valyene had become a dimensional traveller, and the first thing she did was to invade my personal space. Literally. My dimensional tesseract labyrinths, filled with treasures, money, weapons and artifacts collected from a thousand worlds, now had a visitor.

She didn't have my power, but somehow her psyker power had been channeled through the Nexus Arrangement cube, while the same device had been merged with her Null Staff to become a armor piece resembling a power armor's vambrace. Thus, of course Valyene was now picking through the Grey Knight Aegis suits and damaged items for more psi-tech for her use.

I just watched in half horror as bits and pieces reformed, the metal and sigils healing under her hand to be reforged into a half-silver and gold armor that included the Votann Barrier Shield and hundreds of Grey Knight accesories and purity seals. She did look amazing in her new armor, and she even grabbed a certain Drukhari Blaster pistol I named the Checkov Gun, then loaded its other gun magazine's with 3 Darkstar bolts. Then as a final fuck you, she picked up the Gatling Psilencer and made its barrels spin, ready to fire.

"You are awake now, husband?" Valyene spoke rather confidently.

I traversed the labyrinth to meet her in person, and check what she had done to herself. "I see the prisoner has been quite helpful. A bit heretek too, melding Xeno tech with Imperial technology. Not that anyone will mind, in my lands." I observed cogently.

Valyene smiled with a sad face, as her gatling gun spun in mid-air. "This Gatling Psilencer...it is all crystal-tech inside. A conduit for a psyker's power to channel the Warp into anti-deamon nega-psi bolts. The final result of Kinebrach and Interex meld of technolgy called Spiteforging. Technically, the Grey Knights are proven hereteks now."

She lacked the hateful vigor of a proper Ordo Xenos Inquisitor though, as if resigned and maybe disgusted.

I just hugged my wife and waited for a minute. What will we find inside the Golden Throne or the Psi-Titans? How many of humanity's inventions were simply re-purposed alien devices? I would guess quite a few. But I found out why the gatling gun disliked my touch now. Spite-tech, huh?

"That left glove you wear...it is similar and yet far stronger than my own. If you were a psyker, just that glove would raise you into Alpha plus ranks, not to mention your tesseracts and stranger gifts." she noted in the same sad voice, lacking hate and fire.

"I can actually reformat an entire star system to my will now. Is that the limit of an Alpha Plus psyker though? Are there higher ranks in the power scale?" I said in a wondering voice.

Her eyes flashed with Warp energy for a second, re-filling my reserves through my Pariah drain. "Control is the problem, not power. The Warp is immense, infinite perhaps. One can draw as much as they want, until their mind and body fail. Beta Plus and Gamma Plus are the known stages after Alpha Plus, but theoretically they can go higher. Much, much higher."

"It should work the same for Blanks then. Omega-minus is not the last stage." I mused with a new purpose in sight. In fact, I already suspected that, with my Solitaire friend becoming a Demigod by draining Vashtorr not long ago.

A pair of blue eyes opened on her vambrace, as her etheric detector activated. Quite a multi-tool the C'tan had crafted for her. "Type 5, inverted. Ether drain: minimal. Danger level: mostly harmless. " Valyene read out loud what her xeno device said.

I shrugged and slapped her armored ass. "That's me, Pef Lancefire. Mostly harmless." I quipped as my powers extended outwards, and began re-forging the Machine Forge into a proper Mega-shipyard and mining base. Blocks of metal from the Votann treasury, then Space Hulk fragments and collected asteroids got dumped into the system, as I began assembling a planetary ring and orbital elevators made of adamantium.

If Mars had the Iron Ring, my Machine Forge needed one as well. And then a metal planet to exploit for unlimited metal. Then mountain-sized Titans to act as guardians and enforcers for the Deus Ex Machina Titan Legion. Planetary-core deep under the crust, for extra data-storage and contemplation power.

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I just woke up, and was feeling tired already. Valyene sent a tendril of Warp energy towards me, and the energy replenished. Still mentally tired, but at least my body was fine.

"I need some black tea. It's quite tiring constructing planetary scale structures." I muttered and returned to my room, tea flask already in hand.

Canis glanced at me, and sighed in his wise way. He also missed Purity, but the girl was now on Terra with her sister and big brother. Janice came out mostly fine, so hopefully the Emperor could train the little one as well. For a second I imagined Purity roaming the halls of the Imperial Palace and kicking the ankle of some rude giant, like Primarch Angron. Then ripping his Butcher-nails out one by one.

'I think the new core is for me, right?' Speranza sent to my implant, while already installing his fork mind into the brand-new data core.

'The Blade gave you the new STC templates, right? We'll need to make the Anti-grav tanks for my Astartes next. The tracked vehicles will stay with the Auxilia and PDF troops.' I asked in a tired voice.

'You should sleep again, Pef Lancefire. Let the nanites restore your mind, and focus on the big project. We'll deal with the small stuff for you.' the AI answered with slight admonishment.

Oh well. I could sleep...that was true.

I woke up again, much later. Canis was growling in warning, as Fabricator Gemma insisted to visit me right away. Might be something to do with the planetary engineering.

My bodyguard was fast asleep at her feet, because the sneaky woman had her censor-incense doped with soporific smoke, of course.

"What is it, Fabricator?" I muttered half-asleep and drew another tea flask from my inventory.

"My tech-priests and acolytes are overwhelmed with fervent logic-prayers and data-epiphanies. The Machine Forge has awoken, and gained its own Machine Spirit. Calls itself Ex Machina."

Gemma divulged in a half-horrified and half-awed voice.

"I know. I did that." I managed to answer in-between tea sips.

Lady Gemma dropped the incense burner and ran next to my bed. "Don't joke about this, Lord Pef! Tell me I can trust the giant spirit. It is teaching everyone new STC templates as well as a thousand disiplines of mechanical dogma. My logic-barriers still hold...barely." she pleaded with desperate eyes.

"Deus Ex Machina, my lady. Speranza would not call itself a god, but practically it is one now. Anyway, I have two other Machine Spirits almost like that, ancient minds from the Dark Age of Technology that I found during the last Crusade. The Blade and Ironhead. You'll love the Blade, I'm sure." I disclosed with a sneaky grin.

Lady Gemma climbed in my bed and began riding the lance, as her final walls crumbled. "So much knowledge...an ocean of data!" she gushed out in fervent ecstasy.

'I gave your Fabricator Tier 3 access, Pef Lancefire. Her cogitators and mind implant are top-grade so she'll be able to absorb and understand a great deal of Federation tech. Barrier, singularity and temporal tech is instead restricted to those I deem worthy though. Blanks at a minimum, and a disposition towards the scientific method as well.' the Speranza spoke in my mind, much stronger than before.

Inwardly, I agreed. Wouldn't want to risk another Dark Mechanicum rising among the superstitious tech-priests. Plasma and cogitator tech were dangerous enough, but collapsing stars or timelines was rather different. As for psi-tech, we will need a different star system to develop fabrication methods, much like the Grey Knights had their Deimos Forge World.

"I can build an android body for myself now. Fold my weapons and equipment under my skin, and become a pretty lover for you, my Lord." Gemma whispered as she rested on my chest.

I didn't have to think much where the idea came from. The Blade would want an android body for herself as well, and Gemma was likely the only one with the ability to construct a quality body like that. Plus digital weapons and tools were quite small as well, and only costed a few fruits for our Jokaero.

"The planetary ring should work as a wedding ring too." I added with a teasing voice.