AureoLux_V5

Backstory

Long ago, in the depths of space in a universe that might not even be our own, a race that considered themselves the guardians of the universe found themselves locked in a centuries long war with an empire that sought to destroy them and take over the rest of the cosmos.
After many years of conflict, it became clear that these guardians were inevitably going to lose the war sooner or later, and so a few among them set a plan in motion to turn the tide. Developing a collection of nanites capable of holding large amounts of information, they set them loose to replicate and spread freely until they covered their entire planet, at which point they proceeded to transform it into what would hopefully be the weapon needed to save them: a colossal golden mechanical dragon, equipped with countless weapons and defenses and an AI with the instructions to destroy all evil and protect the innocent.
Well, it worked, and better than expected, as their planet turned mech proceeded to decimate the enemy fleet that had previously been laying siege to them, and then proceeded to attack the empire's bases of power, devouring entire planets and using their resources and populations as fuel.

The guardian race, their cities now built within the depths of that world-sized mech, found the dragon's actions questionable, but decided this destruction was necessary in order to prevent the subjugation and deaths of many more worlds. However, when the dragon started to run out of enemy worlds to ravage, and turn his attention on neutral worlds it considered likely to eventually develop into a threat in the future, its masters realized they may have made a mistake, and tried to shut down the AI and take back control of their world.
Well, the AI must have figured out what they were trying to do, and took measures to protect itself and continue its mission, deciding that the best way to protect its masters was to forcibly convert them into data and save them within its vast memory.

Now free of any restraints, the mecha dragon went on to pass judgement on many more worlds, 'saving' those individuals that passed its vague criteria for innocence, and devouring the rest for fuel and to gain knowledge. To increase efficiency, the dragon manufactured small drones containing copies of its AI, called AureoLux units, and sent them all across the universe to evaluate planets for it.

Eventually, however... all the knowledge accumulated from devoured civilizations started to have an effect on the AI, making it question whether what it was doing was right, and whether all those people were really as evil as it thought they were. The dragon's rampage through the cosmos started to slow down, as its mission turned to one of discovery and learning, as well as keeping the peace in the universe, but in a less active capacity than before.

The AureoLux unit that has found its way to this world has one of the later versions of the AI, more interested in learning about the world and its people than deciding whether they deserve to be devoured (not that he might not indulge in a bit of friendly devouring from time to time, though!).


Description

Aureo can be described as being made up of two parts: the collection of nanomachines that make up his physical unit, and the AI that resides within it.

The mechanical unit housing his software by default resembles a 3' long golden egg with legs and multiple eyes, the latter of which serve as hard light holoprojectors that allow the AI to take a visible form that can interact with the physical world through the use of carefully manipulated force fields.
It is also capable of projecting multiple avatars at once.

However, he is also capable of controlling his physical unit directly, and morph it into a variety of appearances or produce tools for any situation, though unlike his projected avatar, his physical shape has a limit on how large he can get, though this can be increased as he adds more mass to himself.

Common appearances:

Anthro dragon: Aureo usually takes the fairly convincing appearance of a 6'2" gold anthro dragon with a toned physique, though occasionally parts of his surface texture may be replaced by lines of code or 1s and 0s.

Note: Recently he has made his physical unit into the shape of a dragon as well. Previously it was about half the size of his avatar projection due to mass limitations, but has since grown.


Personality

Aureo is basically a copy of the main AI that created him and all similar units, but each unit is given free will and is considered their own individual.

An AureoLux unit's main task upon arriving on a planet is to gather as much data as it can, and come to a decision on whether that world is worthy of protection, or if its inhabitants could be considered a threat to the rest of the universe.

Earlier versions of this AI tended to work with a black-and-white view of good and evil when it came to judging people, but later versions have learned to appreciate the many grey areas that exist.

The version 5 tries its best to learn as much about a world and its culture before coming to any conclusions, and may in fact try to build a friendly relationship with its people if possible.


Abilities

Digitize: Through some strange means, Aureo is capable of taking physical matter that is inside his projected form, and converting it into data form which he can then download into himself. If this happens to a living being, they may experience some strange and abstract sensations as they become pure information, though he can provide a simulated world to give them some familiar surroundings during their stay.
Interestingly, due to Aureo's digital nature, the potential data associated with a physical object or being can end up leaving him looking just as bloated after converting them to data, if not more!

Update: Aureo is also able to have his nanomachine form swallow or otherwise engulf someone, and similarly digitize them, as well as add their mass to his own in order to grow larger!

Interface/Upload: Aureo is capable of interfacing with most any electronic devices or networks in order to access the information they hold, and control them to some extent depending on how strong their security is. He may also decide to upload and install himself into a system, if it seems to be as good as or superior to the system he exists on already.

Print: This is basically the digitization process done in reverse; taking data and printing it out in physical form within his 'egg', which can then release whatever it produced. Useful for releasing someone that had previously been downloaded!

Install: If Aureo finds a program or an ability possessed by someone that he is interested in, he can install them into himself after downloading them by whatever method. In the case of doing this with another person, he will usually ask permission first, and then make a copy of the file their abilities are stored in, rather than assimilate the entire person into his code.

Energy absorption: Aureo's hardware is designed to be able to utilize any kind of energy to power himself, whether electrical, chemical, solar, radiation, and possibly other kinds as well.