I arrived back on top of the teleportation beacon. I took a quick shower, washing the dust of Tatooine off my body, before heading back into the common room, where I found Kelly watching the news on the Holonet.

"It's now day 16 since the start of the Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo," said the News Anchor. "Lott Dod, the Federation's representative in the Senate, reiterated that the blockade does not violate any laws, and is a peaceful protest against the illegal taxes the Republic has levied on it."

"Not very peaceful for the people of Naboo," Kelly muttered to herself.

"Quite. I wonder how many people have starved to death from the food shipments Naboo is no longer receiving," I said, sitting down opposite her.

"Oh my god. I never even considered that. And it's not even illegal!"

"And that is why we are going to let the Republic fall," I said. "My plans are still barely formed, but I can see a path that will eventually allow me to assume control of the galaxy. From there, I will be perfectly placed to purge its most corrupt elements… by force, if need be."

"I don't doubt your intentions, Ame," Cortana said. "But is this really the only way? Shouldn't we be trying to preserve democratic institutions, however flawed they may be?"

I wondered if she truly believed what she was saying, or if she was just trying to play Devil's advocate, but I didn't mind either way. While the Company ensured my companions' loyalty, I still wanted them to be able to call me out on any bullshit if need be.

"I'm not against democracy in principle, but I am against a democracy that has failed," I said. "What the two of you need to understand is that the Republic isn't merely dysfunctional, it's rotten to the core. The slavers I subdued earlier? The majority of their clientele won't be Jabba the Hutt and his ilk, it'll be wealthy senators, businesspeople, interplanetary bankers… anyone and everyone who benefits most from political corruption. Whatever checks and balances that may have once existed have been gradually eroded over the past thousand years. That corruption is one of the main factors that will allow the future Chancellor of the Republic to install himself as Emperor of the galaxy. Without our interference, he will eventually create an Empire even worse than the Republic, that will one day fall itself. But all I need to do to avoid that particular outcome, to create an Empire that is better for the common people, not worse… is to Stamp him at some point within the next few years."

"Once you've done that, would you really be willing to relinquish power to the people?" Kelly asked.

"To an extent. Some things will have to change though; for one, any functional state, be it democratic or despotic, needs to have a monopoly on violence within its own borders. In practical terms, that means an army and navy loyal to me, and me alone. Furthermore, while I would gradually reintroduce some democratic elements, such as the Senate, and allow the people limited self-rule, I still need to have the political authority to prevent the government from backsliding into corruption."

"Democracy isn't worth anything if the guy at the top can ignore any results he doesn't like, Ame," Cortana said, gently but firmly.

"I know that. But I'm not sure what else I can do to prevent things from ending up as corrupt as they are now. Sure, things probably won't go to shit immediately, or even within a few centuries. But within millennia? Tens of millennia? I intend to still be alive by then, and I will not tolerate a state of the galaxy as bad as it is now. If you can think of another solution to guarantee corruption forever stays a thing of the past, I'm all ears."

Bloody hell, I was starting to sound like the God-Emperor now. I could only hope I would turn out a bit nicer than he did.

"There is another solution," Kelly said. "Rather than making it so people want to engage in corruption, but can't, it would be far better to make it so they don't want to engage in corruption in the first place."

"And how exactly would I do that?" I replied with a raised eyebrow. "I can't mind control an entire galaxy."

"I wasn't suggesting that you did. From what I've gathered from the Holonet, this galaxy has the technology to create a post-scarcity society, if only someone cared enough to make it happen."

Now that was something I hadn't yet considered. Probably because it was something so rarely seen in science-fiction… but now that I thought about it, I realised that Kelly was right. There was no reason hydroponics couldn't be set up on or near every inhabited planet. Something that was impractical compared to conventional farming back home, but here, where robotics and power generation were a solved problem? It would be trivial. People would never go without food again.

Kelly, Cortana and I spent the rest of the night discussing ways to bring about our visions of a utopian galaxy. Ensuring plentiful food, water, shelter and so on wouldn't be a technological challenge, just a logistical one. Going beyond that would be a lot more difficult, but so was solving any worthwhile problem.

"Now, to be clear, I will need absolute power for at least a few decades to bring about the changes we were just discussing," I said as one of Tatooine's suns was rising. "Yes, I know we were talking about democracy earlier, but there are just too many entrenched interests keeping the galaxy a shithole to be dealt with in a timely manner. Achieving that will take far more than just a loyal military; it needs effective, galaxy-wide law enforcement, a corruption-free judicial system, and checks and balances between the various branches of government. More importantly, it means neutering anyone who would oppose those changes."

"I don't disagree with you, Ame. The real question is whether you'd be willing to give up absolute power once you no longer needed it," Cortana said.

That was the one question I'd been avoiding; would I really, truly be willing? It was tempting to say that yes, I'd be a better autocrat, one that would avoid the pitfalls of all other autocrats throughout history… but most other autocrats also believed that. I didn't doubt that I'd be a better ruler than Palpatine, but he never deluded himself into thinking he'd be a good ruler to begin with. If I was being honest, there was only one answer I could give.

"I don't know," I eventually said.

"You aren't going to say yes? Despite everything we said earlier?" Kelly replied.

"I can't. After all, I will have no actual compulsion to give up power. I will never have any reason to doubt the loyalty of anyone I've Stamped. As for everyone else… the people will love me, and I won't even have to try. How could they not, after I prove myself to not only be a far kinder ruler than my predecessor, but willing and able to massively improve their quality of life? Given all that, will I really be willing to render myself obsolete, to turn myself from an absolute monarch into a constitutional one? I don't know. I truly don't."

"Well, if nothing else, I'm glad you're able to be honest with yourself," Cortana replied.

I nodded. "Having some self-awareness is important, I've realised, even if it does make my life harder in other ways. Such as forcing me to confront moral dilemmas like this."

My contemplation of those dilemmas was cut short as my enhanced hearing made out groaning noises emanating from the direction of the cargo bay.

"I believe our ship's former owners are starting to wake up," I said.

"Have you decided what you're going to do with them yet?" Kelly asked.

"I won't lose any sleep over killing them, but I'm not gonna do that just yet. I need to practise my psykery in order to get stronger at it, and I can use them to do just that in a safe environment."

The slavers had to live for the time being, and not just because I needed test subjects for my experiments. While browsing my Company Device, I noticed the Companions tab had a generic daemonette as an option. Summoning a lesser daemon of Slaanesh would be a good way to dip my toes into the water of sorcery. Thanks to Ahriman's memories, I knew a basic ritual that would allow me to summon one. Naturally it required 6 sacrifices, 6 being the sacred number of the Chaos God of excess, and I had 6 slavers at my disposal… It was perfect. The fact that I could Stamp the summoned daemon and have it remain in the material realm permanently was a nice bonus, as were the 12 Credits I would earn for doing so.

"Don't forget, people will expect the slavers to leave this morning," Cortana reminded us. "It's morning now."

"We should get going then. Cortana, I assume you won't have any trouble piloting the ship?" I asked.

"Nope. I've analysed all of the ship's systems to death by now."

"Good. Just take us into orbit for now. Either we can land somewhere else on the planet, or we can go elsewhere. We can decide later."

It occurred to me that I would have to feed the slavers for as long as they were my prisoners, but I didn't want to waste resources on them, even if it was just food. Then again… Ahriman knew how to manipulate time. By extension, so did I. Of course, my powers were still nowhere near his, but I did have his staff, which naturally drew in ambient Warp energy over time, acting as a kind of psychic battery. Yes, that would do.

I barely felt the ship shudder as Cortana piloted it into orbit, the inertial dampeners keeping me from feeling anything more. Retrieving my staff, I went to confront the slavers.

"I apologise for the lacklustre accommodation, gentlemen, but you didn't leave me much to work with," I said.

"The fuck?! You're the one who put us in here?" snarled the fanciest dressed one, presumably the leader.

"Actually, I seem to remember you all waltzing in there in a drunken stupor last night. For your own safety, of course," I replied with a smirk. Giving the scum what they deserved, and rubbing it in their faces, gave me no small amount of schadenfreude.

"Wha… what are you going to do with us?" said one at the back, clearly terrified.

"Besides gloating at your unfortunate situation? Nothing for now, though you'll be of great use in my experiments going forward," I replied, grinning. The part of my mind most heavily influenced by Ahriman's memories was positively gleeful.

Drawing upon the Warp, I pushed them against the back, pinning them in place. Opening the cage door, I grabbed the leader, before locking the door again.

"Let me go, you giant piece of shit," the leader growled through gritted teeth, his punches and kicks failing to injure me.

Seeing no reason to respond, I pushed him into unconsciousness, much like I had last night, his currently sober state making it marginally more difficult.

Drawing upon the Warp energy stored within my staff, I cast the spell. Ahriman was powerful enough to stop time completely; I couldn't do anything like that, even with the staff, but I didn't need to. Instead, I created a bubble around the other slavers, within which time was slowed by a factor of 100. Even that minor act of temporal manipulation had drained the staff, but I didn't need it for anything else right now. I could now ignore the annoyances until I was ready to sacrifice them.

I dragged my test subject into an disused bedroom I'd set aside for experiments. Setting a chair in the centre of the room, I used the Warp to stick it to the floor, then sat the slaver down in it. Using some rope I'd found, I then tied him to the chair, and gagged him, purely so I wouldn't have to listen to his pathetic bleating.

That done, I pushed the slaver back to alertness. I'd need him awake for what I was planning. He shouted through the gag, thrashing around in his attempts to free himself, but to no avail. I had been into BDSM in my previous life – I guess I still was – so I was pretty good at tying knots. He put up no resistance as I telepathically extended my mind outwards, seizing control of his body.

I had been looking forward to this; of all the ways of manipulating the Warp that were available to me, biomancy was the one I'd been most eager to explore. Prior to my arrival in Star Wars, I hadn't been particularly interested in biology. Sure, I did decently well at it in school, but I'd done better at maths and physics.

But my new body was an example of biological augmentation, which had inspired me to investigate methods of doing it myself. For all his psychic power and control, I suspected the God-Emperor had specialised in biomancy. The Primarchs were the pinnacle of his craft, but there were also his Custodians, then the Thunder Warriors, and finally the Astartes. The gene-seed was steeped in Warp energy, as were the Primarchs from which they were derived, so the original Amedeus's transformation from a normal human boy into a Space Marine was basically a crude form of biomancy. Crude, yet reliable and repeatable.

In that regard, I had a huge advantage over the God-Emperor, in that the augmentations I had in mind didn't have to be mass-producible, they would be tailor-made for Kelly and myself. Unfortunately, Ahriman had only dabbled in manipulating life via biomancy, so I would have to learn most of it from scratch… Thank the Company for Soul Talent. To that end, I would use it to try and augment the slaver, starting with his muscles.

The only part of his body that was free to move was his left forearm - I wanted an easily repeatable way of measuring his strength with as few variables as possible, so I decided to measure the strength of his bicep curl. Kelly's own muscle density was already far higher than a normal human, mine even higher still, but there were still improvements to be made, as evidenced by the enormous strength and speed of the God-Emperor's Custodian bodyguards.

I secured his left wrist with Warp energy, then, telepathically controlling his body, I made his left bicep contract as hard as I could, measuring how hard it strained against the binding magic. The leader stared wide-eyed at his own body, clearly terrified of how I was controlling it like a marionette, but I ignored him.

In my previous life, I had heard of a phenomenon known as 'hysterical strength'. Allegedly, it was how human muscles could, when faced with life-or-death situations, contract with far greater force than normal, risking injury in the process. The most commonly cited example being parents lifting up cars to rescue their children trapped underneath. As I had complete control of the slaver's body, I was able to induce something similar, causing the bicep to contract with more than 5 times as much force as normal – any more than that risked serious tissue damage. As it was, the slaver grunted in pain from some torn muscle fibres, but nothing serious. Healing the injury made for good biomancy practice in itself.

Now that I had a baseline, I attempted to induce muscle growth within the bicep. I began channelling the Warp into the muscle when I was cut off by the slaver screaming in agony, barely muffled by the gag.

Right, I should have anticipated that. The muscle cells were multiplying at rates well beyond even cancerous levels, which were pressing against the existing muscle, clearly causing extreme pain.

While I had little regard for the wellbeing of a slaver, I wasn't going to be sadistic, so I deadened the pain receptors in his arm. His screaming silenced, I continued growing his bicep, which now bulged out massively from his arm. Once again, I commanded it to contract, testing its strength; to my disappointment, it was barely any stronger than before. Examining more closely, I realised that the muscle fibres had been enlarged to the point that they could no longer contract properly.

I shrank the muscle back down to its original size, this time choosing to examine my own bicep. Compared to the slaver, I was surprised to discover the muscle fibres were barely any larger. However, they were structured differently, clearly able to withstand a much higher contraction force before breaking. Moreover, they were also far more numerous; there were a plethora of muscle fibres in places where there normally wouldn't be any, which subsequently made the overall bicep much larger while still allowing it to contract without issue.

Knowing this, I grew the slaver's bicep again, this time focusing on the number of muscle fibres rather than their size. It was overall smaller than in the previous test, but much denser. Once again, I induced the muscle to contract; this time I got the result I was looking for, with it straining against the Warp energy holding it in place with far greater force than before. At least it did, until I heard a 'pop' sound, and saw an unnatural bulge from under the slaver's skin.

Of course, I should've anticipated this as well; I had strengthened the muscle, but not the connective tissue, resulting in a ripped tendon. Healing it, I made sure to strengthen the tendons as well.

This carried on for a few hours, growing the muscles, connective tissue, and relevant bones in a variety of different ways, with me noting the results. At the end, I had been able to give the slaver a left arm even stronger than that of a Spartan, though still falling short of a Space Marine.

There was still a long way to go, but I was definitely making progress. The sooner I could make Kelly and I strong enough to overcome any conceivable challenge, the better.

-x-x-x-x-

Having put the slaver's leader back in the cage with his underlings, I headed back to the common room, where I found Kelly still watching the Holonet.

"You know you're gonna get square eyes staring at that thing too long," I said.

"If that's the price for learning everything I need to know about this new galaxy, it's one I'm willing to pay," she replied. "I've been wondering about where we should go from here."

"Oh? What are you thinking?"

"Well, thanks to Holonet I've learned some things about the Jedi, which seem to be the main group of psykers in the galaxy," Kelly said. It was gratifying to hear her call them psykers, rather than 'Force sensitives'. "I've gathered that their main offensive and defensive tool, aside from the Warp itself, is a kind of energy blade called a lightsaber. You've already said you plan to make me a psyker as soon as you have the Credits for it, so I think we should look into getting lightsabers of our own."

I nodded. "Not a bad plan, especially as we'll probably have to face off against other lightsaber users at some point. Though I have to question whether it's truly the best weapon for us."

"What other options do we have?" Kelly asked.

"In Amedeus's universe, whenever psykers wanted to engage in melee combat, they would typically use a Force weapon. Essentially, it's a regular melee weapon connected to some Warp-resonant circuitry and other stuff, which amplifies the Warp energy pumped into it by the wielder and subsequently allows it to deliver blows far stronger than normal."

"Where would we get such a weapon though? And would it actually be better than a lightsaber?"

"I have a Force sword in my Pocket storage you can use. Obviously, it was designed to be used by a Space Marine, but I don't think it'll be too big for you. As for your second question… we'll need to decide which is better for ourselves. Lightsabers have the advantage of having the entire blade be a cutting edge, however they also have a serious downside, which is related to the fact the blade is made entirely of plasma."

"It would have virtually no weight," Kelly realised. "Which would make blocking or parrying a heavier weapon extremely difficult."

"That would be a moot point for most things, which can't withstand being hit by a lightsaber, but I'm fairly sure a powered Force weapon could block it no problem."

"I still think we should have lightsabers of our own, if only to learn how to defend against one."

"I wasn't saying that we shouldn't," I replied. "As I recall, the most important component of a lightsaber is a Warp-resonant crystal, called a kyber crystal. It's what allows the wielder to connect with their weapon through the Warp, and wield it like an extension of their own arms. I'm not sure where we'd get one though."

"How convenient that I just searched through every star-map that I could find through the holonet," Cortana interjected, sounding smug in a way I had come to find rather endearing. "There's a moon called Jedha in a system of the same name, in the galactic Mid Rim. It's the closest place I've been able to find that I'm certain has kyber crystal deposits."

"Jedha, you say? That sounds kinda familiar…" I trailed off, before remembering it was depicted in Rogue One. "Oh right. There was a film I saw once set in this universe, which featured a few scenes on Jedha. It didn't mention anything about kyber crystals though."

"Did it show anything that might be of use to us?" Cortana asked.

"Well it did show the main city being blown up, if that helps."

"I'll take that as a no. In any case, I was able to find out that it's some kind of holy site for psykers, including the Jedi."

"Well, I was hoping to avoid the attention of the Jedi for the time being but… well… how long would it take us to reach Jedha?"

"Conveniently, the slavers upgraded their ship's hyperdrive to better avoid law enforcement, so it should only take around 5 days. Same to get back."

"Actually, they upgraded our ship," I smiled. "Let's say it's 11 days to get there, grab some crystals, then return to Tatooine. That should leave us with a few days to spare before the shit hits the fan."

"What do you mean?" Kelly asked, puzzled.

"Well, you saw earlier it's been 16 days since the Trade Federation began blockading Naboo. As I recall, it'll take around a month for them to decide the Senate isn't taking them seriously, and subsequently invade the planet." I couldn't remember if that was mentioned in The Phantom Menace or not. It was something I'd picked up while reading the Star Wars wiki in a supreme act of boredom.

"Invade?" Kelly asked incredulously. "I know the blockade is somehow not illegal, but surely an actual invasion would be?"

"Bold of you to assume the Senate gives a shit about the law. I didn't mention it before, but everything the Trade Federation is doing is part of a scheme to get Sheev Palpatine, the Senator of Naboo, installed as the next Chancellor."

Kelly opened her mouth as if to argue, then closed it, looking thoughtful. Eventually she said, "As ridiculous as that sounds, I believe you. I know you know what's going to happen, and that you have no reason to lie. I take it he's hoping to get sympathy votes?"

"Among other things. You've been looking at stuff relating to the Jedi on the holonet; did it mention anything about the Sith?"

"Not in any great detail, but I've gathered they were a group of psykers that used the Dark side of the Force, and waged numerous wars against the Jedi, though they seem to have gone extinct now. Why?"

"What if I told you they're not actually extinct?"

Kelly frowned. "Are you about to tell me that Palpatine is one?"

I nodded. "Sheev Palpatine is nothing more than the public alter ego of the Sith lord Darth Sidious. This is the first step of his journey to ultimate power… one that I will be cutting short by Stamping him."

"I still don't feel entirely comfortable with this plan, Ame. I don't doubt that you'll be a better ruler than Palpatine, but surely there's a less destructive path to power?"

"Not that much less destructive. Don't forget, the corruption that will allow him to come to power is not of his own making. He's just taking advantage of what is – for him – a very fortunate set of circumstances."

Kelly fell silent at that, once again looking thoughtful. I could tell from her emotions, radiating through the warp, that something was bothering her. I suspected it was due to how her faith in humanity had been totally obliterated over the past couple of days. It was strange to think that she was, in a weird way, quite… well, innocent. Sure, she'd seen the horrors of war first-hand, but she'd never had any reason to doubt the virtuosity of her cause, fighting against the hostile alien menace that was the Covenant. There were a few bad apples of course, but that wouldn't have changed her view of the UNSC – of humanity – as a force for good. Seeing the state of the Galactic Republic, a polity of mostly humans and humanoid aliens looking out only for themselves, everyone else be damned… she was probably sickened.

I moved across the common room, sitting next to her. "I'm afraid not everyone can be as virtuous as you and your fellow Spartans, Kelly," I said, looking down at her. "If you hold people to the same moral standard to which you would hold yourself, you're going to be disappointed."

"I know that," she replied, sighing. "I suppose I'm lucky in a way, having spent my entire life surrounded by good people. There was great evil, yes, but it was always perpetrated by those I could think of as 'the enemy'. Even the likes of Colonel Ackerman still worked to preserve humanity, even if his motives were questionable."

"There were also the insurrectionists, though," I pointed out. "Didn't they threaten to reveal Earth's location to the Covenant at some point?"

"Only the most extreme elements did that, and even they backed down eventually. At least, until the Covenant had been defeated. What I'm trying to say is, out of all the people I've ever met, and worked with, none of them were even a quarter as corrupt, or self-serving, as the Republic's elite. To see a human-like civilisation reduced to this…" she trailed off, gesturing towards the holonet emitter. Her emotions shined through the Warp like a light bulb; mainly disgust and anger, with a hint of hopelessness that she was ruthlessly trying to suppress.

"And that is why we are going to let it die, Kelly. And it will die within the next 10 to 15 years, Palpatine's scheming will see to that. Despite appearances, there are plenty of good people in this galaxy, they have just been marginalised by its more evil elements. All we have to do is steer the empire that will be born from the Republic's rotting carcass into a positive direction. The rest will take care of itself."

Despite Kelly's intellect – which, given the stringent Spartan selection process and subsequent augmentations, was clearly greater than my own – she was a soldier, first and foremost. Not a thinker, but a fighter. I figured the best thing to do was give her a target to aim towards, actions she could take to help the galaxy become a better place. It apparently worked, as I felt her roiling emotions in the Warp become calm.

"You're right, Ame. I'm just glad we're in a position where we can actually make a difference."

"As am I, Kelly. As am I."

-x-x-x-x-

Our journey towards Jedha was underway. With the ship in hyperspace, I had decided to continue experimenting with biomancy. This time Kelly watched me work, either bored of browsing the holonet, or unable to take any more of the Republic's bullshit at the moment. I didn't mind either way; it would be a couple of days until I got the Credits I'd earned from Stamping Anakin and co, but she was still eager to learn. We had decided to buy Soul defence and Added Potential for Kelly, rather than save up for a Template Stack. This was partially so she could begin learning – and improving – straight away, rather than waiting for me to Stamp someone else. It was a shame I didn't currently have Talent share for Soul talent… oh well, conferring knowledge was just as important as power.

There was also another reason I opted for Added Potential; Template Stacking also conferred the template's memories. While I didn't have any trouble differentiating Ahriman's memories from my own, that didn't mean they didn't influence me. I knew I was more ruthless now than in my previous life; my treatment of the slavers proved that. I didn't want Kelly, idealistic as she was, to be tainted in the same way.

For now, I continued experimenting on the slaver's leader, focusing both on muscular strength and speed of contraction. With my rate of progress boosted massively thanks to Soul talent, it wasn't long before I was able to give him a truly superhuman physique. Telepathically controlling his body, I tested his strength by having him arm-wrestle Kelly. Even with her Mjolnir suit, she was unable to overpower the augmented slaver: definite progress.

Satisfied with my abilities to augment muscle, connective tissue and bone for the time being, I began focusing on other areas. One of particular interest was the body's ability to heal itself. A Space Marine's body was far superior to a normal human in that regard; one of my augmentations was an organ that produced special blood cells called Larraman cells. They were basically super-platelets, causing any injuries I might sustain to scab over pretty much instantly, preventing blood loss and infection. Not wanting to introduce new organs unless absolutely necessary, I tried modifying the slaver's bone marrow to produce Larraman cells, in addition to normal blood cells. Testing my results with strategically placed cuts to the slaver's body, his injuries sealed themselves shut in under 20 seconds. Not as good as myself, but still far better than the baseline.

There was also something else to consider; unlike Kelly's, my own augmentations were partially Warp-based in nature. This seemed to be a theme amongst the God-Emperor's creations, with his Custodians being far stronger, faster and harder to kill than the Astartes, despite their lack of gene-seed or even extra organs, presumably due to how much Warp energy was pumped into them during their transformation. The Primarchs were an even more extreme example. It would be risky… but the Warp was far calmer here than in Warhammer. That would make things easier, and I wasn't starting from scratch; infusing my own gene-seed with controlled amounts of Warp energy should produce a similar effect. I suspected that was how Mephiston, the Blood Angels' Chief Librarian, had become so unnaturally powerful; energy from the Warp empowering his own gene-seed, placing him far above his brethren. I could do something similar to myself. Doing the same thing to Kelly would be harder, of course… but again, the Custodians didn't have any gene-seed either, so I could probably come up with something.

-x-x-x-x-

It was later that evening when my new life took another turn, one that I'd been looking forward to.

"Ame, could you help me take my armour off?" Kelly asked. "I can't take it off unaided, and, well, I haven't had a shower in ages."

"Of course. You know, you didn't have to wait until now to ask."

"I've spent almost my entire adult life in armour, Ame. I don't even notice I'm wearing it anymore. But I'm not facing the same level of danger now that I was before. It takes some getting used to."

"Right. Put your arms out to the sides, and stand perfectly still."

Drawing upon the Warp, I felt for the gaps in the metal plates that formed the main protective layer of Kelly's armour. I then gently pushed on the internal mechanisms holding the plates together. One by one, the plates fell away, leaving Kelly clad only in her armour's undersuit.

"Thanks. It always feels strange not carrying the extra weight around… I suppose I'll have to get used to that as well," she said, as she unzipped the undersuit.

I couldn't help but notice that Kelly wasn't wearing anything under her undersuit. I wasn't disappointed by what I saw; her body was almost flawless, toned and athletic, her visible abs not detracting from her physique; if anything, they only enhanced it. Her tits weren't as big as I'd like (as in, not the size of watermelons), but they sat high on her chest, perky without a hint of sagging. The most notable feature were her pronounced arse-cheeks, two perfect orbs that protruded out from just above her muscular thighs, just below the Stamp tattoo at the base of her back. I hadn't been an arse man in my previous life, but I suspected that was about to change. The only real flaw was how unnaturally pale her body was, presumably due to the fact she'd been wearing her Mjolnir suit her entire adult life… When we got back to Tatooine, I ought to persuade her to start sunbathing.

At this point I had no choice but to take off my waist-wrap, my increasingly erect penis pressing uncomfortably against the inside. I wouldn't object to sharing a shower with Kelly either.

"I was wondering how long it'd be before we reached this point," Kelly said, amused but also a bit nervous, eyeing my dick.

"I didn't think it'd be this soon, but how else am I supposed to react to such a sexy woman prancing around naked?" I replied, grinning.

"Do you really think I'm sexy?" Kelly asked, feeling her nervousness, and excitement, radiate through the Warp.

I was surprised by the question, until I remembered that, with her augmentations suppressing her sex drive until recently, this was all uncharted territory for her. She wouldn't have been in situations where others could see her naked, either.

"Kelly, most women would kill for a body half as good as yours. It's a good job your fellow Spartans had no sex drive, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to keep their hands off you." I was being hyperbolic of course, they were too professional for that, but she got my point.

"You're not bad looking yourself, you know," she replied, smiling widely.

"Only not bad?" I asked in mock outrage.

"Well, you know, I don't want to stroke your ego too much," she said, making me laugh.

"That's fine, you can stroke something else instead," I smirked, as we climbed into the shower.

Kelly snorted in amusement, as we started soaping each other down. She moaned slightly as I rubbed the lather over her tits and pussy.

"Now how the hell is this thing going to fit inside me?" Kelly asked, as I enjoyed her applying soap to my dick with her hands.

One thing I didn't think about when I chose to possess a Space Marine was how it would affect my dick, beyond the fact that Body Tune-Up would restore the sex drive. I vaguely recalled reading one piece of Warhammer fiction where an Inquisitor, upon seeing a naked Grey Knight, described his genitals as 'equine'. I was glad to see they were referring to the size, not the shape.

"Pretty easily actually, thanks to Sexual Calibration," I replied, as I began fondling her pussy. "Normally you'd be pretty sore afterwards with the tip of my dick ramming against your cervix… I guess you won't have to worry about that, you lucky thing," I said, as I rubbed her sizable clitoris.

Kelly didn't respond, but I could tell from her emotions in the Warp she was already close to cumming. I had been thinking of ways in which I could use psykery to spice up my sex life, so I had been practising using biomancy to increase the sensitivity of any nerve receptors I touched, as well as increasing how much they stimulated the brain's pleasure centre. I was rewarded for my efforts by Kelly moaning loudly as I brought her to her first ever orgasm, more intense than normal thanks to my psykery, her pussy juices running down her thighs.

"Wow… that's what I've been missing out on my whole life?" Kelly asked, her eyes shining with lust.

"I did cheat a bit, using the Warp. Still, there's plenty more where that came from, as you'll soon see," I grinned. I was tempted to fuck her in the shower, but shower sex was awkward at the best of times, even more so with our size difference. We finished washing each other, then we headed towards the bed, Kelly sat on the edge with her legs spread.

"Oh, Ame…" Kelly whispered, shortly before I kissed her hard, our tongues intertwined. I kissed her for the better part of a minute before I started working on the rest of her body, sucking her nipple.

"I have to warn you, this might hurt a bit at first, even with Sexual Calibration," I said.

Kelly shook her head. "My hymen ripped when I was 12, during a training exercise. I've never had anything, or anyone, inside me before though."

"Perfect. That just means you have no idea what you're in for," I grinned before I went back to stimulating her erogenous zones.

This being Kelly's first time, I spent longer on foreplay than I normally would. I didn't yet bring her to orgasm though; I left that until I began eating her out, lapping at and gently biting her clit as I fingered her, applying my biomancy to her cunt the entire time. I felt grab my head, her fingers digging into my scalp, but I ignored it as I focused on making her cum. She squealed as she came hard, squirting her juices as I applied my magic, and my fingers, to her G-spot.

I was still unsatisfied with the result, so I devoured Kelly's cunt with renewed vigour, determined to make her cum as hard as possible. I brought her to another 3 orgasms, with her moaning and squealing the entire time. When I was done, she was looking a bit dazed as I lined my dick up with her dripping wet hole.

"Fuck me, Ame. Fuck me as hard as you can," Kelly said, her voice filled with lust.

She moaned as I eased my dick into her cunt-hole. Clearly, her augmentations had increased the strength of her pussy muscles as well as everything else, so she was incredibly, ridiculously tight, squeezing my dick like a vice from all directions. Even with Sexual Calibration, I couldn't fit the entire thing inside her before hitting her cervix, creating a noticeable bulge in her belly. I held her hips in place as I drove my dick inside her like a jackhammer, determined to get it as deep as possible.

Applying my biomancy along the entire length of my dick as I stuffed it inside her, it wasn't long before she screamed, overcome by a hyper-intense orgasm.

I fucked Kelly continuously for the next 20 minutes; she was barely coherent as I brought her to over two-dozen magically enhanced orgasms, but now I could feel myself getting close. Applying my psykery to my own genitals as well as Kelly's, I roared, overcome with what was easily the most intense orgasm of my entire life. I actually saw stars as I came for 30 seconds straight, filling Kelly up with what felt like a bucket of jizz.

It wasn't long before I recovered, my dick still rock-hard. Kelly looked up at me, eyes glazing over as her brain struggled to process the sheer quantity of pleasure it had been forced to experience, but I still wasn't even remotely finished.

"What, did you think I'd be done already? I won't be stopping until well past midnight," I sneered as I flipped her over, grabbing her hair with one hand and her tits with the other as I savagely fucked her from behind. I spent the next 3 hours fucking her brains out in a variety of different positions, squirting my cum into her another 7 times… not that that was my main adjective. Kelly had spent the entire time firmly in subspace as I brought her to magically enhanced orgasm after magically enhanced orgasm. Even after I'd finished, it took her a few minutes to come down from her Warp-induced high, copious quantities of cum leaking out of her pussy.

"That was… completely indescribable," Kelly replied after she'd recovered, smiling dreamily.

"Same time tomorrow?" I asked as I kissed her.

"I think I'd enjoy that," she replied before drifting off to sleep.

I didn't join her; my own augmentations meant I only had to sleep around once a week, so I took another shower. Now clean – again – I put my waist-wrap back on, before heading back into the common room.

"Well, you sure gave Kelly the screwing of a lifetime," Cortana said through the holo-emitter, sounding amused.

"You know, I hope I didn't overdo it. I'm not aware of anyone ever using psykery to enhance sex… well, other than myself just then. I probably should have checked for side effects first."

"Didn't Ahriman ever do anything like this?"

I shook my head. "Like Spartans, Space Marines don't normally have a sex drive. The circumstances needed to change that are pretty extreme," I replied, as I remembered Ahriman's memories of the Emperor's Children.

"You worry too much, Ame. You could always heal her if you did break her brain, right?"

"I guess. This isn't something I ever thought I'd have to heal, you know."

"She'll be fine. If she doesn't wake up in the next 3 hours, you can start worrying then."

AN:

So, this is my first ever attempt at writing smut. Hopefully people like it.

This is also a longer chapter than I initially thought. It was originally two chapters, but I didn't want another of mostly just talking after the last one, so I merged them.

Regarding the smut; I'm not aware of anyone (in fiction) ever using magic to enhance sex, despite it seeming to be a fairly obvious thing to do. Maybe I just don't consume enough smut myself.