With this race, I really wanted them to go for tech and biology, yeah? Everyone's either far left (all mechanical), or organic that leans on technology. With this one, I wanted to mash everything that could possibly manipulate technology -- both organics and mechanics can do that. Thus, you have the Apparati and SMART (the empire).
Digest: Think of them as a lump sum of every show/series/book/whatever-else that had machines in it. I'm not ripping, but that's the basic scope. Like the Origins, they start from the smallest building block -- nanobots -- and assemble into things that can, how you say, "own shit".
You probably don't need to read this, or care. But I thought some insight would be nice. But yeah, if Gaser is a tech guy (how you described him) then I'm someone he'd want to get in on shit with. For sure.