Dracsi

AKA DRACSU (Defensive Relay and Comprehension Semiorganic Unit, later changed to Individual in favor of respecting the race as people versus mere robots.)

Dracsi are a race of biomechanical humanoids. Originally created by Humans as both experimental tools for protection against the Nihilex, and general combative purposes. Dealing with the Nihilex meant needing something close to human to work against the Nihilex's matter-consuming nature. To undo "nothing" is to create, and it seemed that the Human Condition was highly effective for such.

Initially the Dracsi were manipulated by a pilot within, having little sentience to keep things from going out of control. However, dealing with a biomechanical being proved for strange outcomes -- pilots became physically bound to the bodies, the body needing a higher thinking individual to really survive.

Bions
To remain efficient, the Dracsi were typically accompanied by molecular nanomachines that would do slow repair to the mechanical body – microscopic assemblers that could work to manipulate individual molecules into new forms. While the organic nature of the bodies meant that typical life support was necessary, the mechanical aspects of the Dracsi could be manipulated and changed thanks to the nanomachines -- these were later named Bions.

Bions proved to be far more productive than originally intended. Humans that had been fused to their new mechanical forms began to learn to shift shapes between their original bodies to armored, massive entities. This seemed to be mainly a stress reaction, hormones within the body inducing a response from the Bions.

As the scattered original Dracsi procreated, an interesting reaction occurred -- while most Dracsi were created with different aspects to their mechanical make-up, Bions had been a recurring component, since repairs otherwise were costly. Bions seemed to carry on to the children of the Dracsi, over time integrating mechanical aspects into young human bodies, resulting in entities similar to that of their parents.

To some humans, this seemed like some sort of plague upon the children of the Dracsi and they were avoided -- to others, this seemed to make sense, and they were recognized as their own race with time.

It seemed the Bions carried over many aspects of the parent Dracsi to their children -- Similar physical weapons such as sharp edged joints, spines, etcetera seemed to be somewhat recurring, but each individual still had their own shape and the Bions seemed to recognize a sort of DNA signature that made each Dracsi unique in their mechanical form.

Soul-Cores
The organic form of the Dracsi seemed to be far more malleable than that of their parents' as they continued to procreate and evolve. Their bodies were augmented and fortified with mechanics that very carefully housed their brains within them, the "soul" of each individual being contained in an orb-like core that had absolute control over the change of energy that occurred when the Dracsi changed from a humanoid form to a more mechanical one.

These cores would dictate whether or not a Dracsi would even operate in their mechanical forms. Some kept their cores within themselves, feeling secure in their own defense -- others entrusted the cores to those they trusted dearly, creating a new generation of pilots with a new purpose. They not only piloted the Dracsi with intent of protection or attack -- but they did so to protect their close ally.

That said, the Dracsi's Bions would almost always create a cockpit of sorts within their mechanical forms -- likely a remnant of their origins.

It should be noted that not all of the original Dracsi had a soul-core that had developed; not all of the beginning Dracsi race had them either, but over time it became a very useful survival method, and the race adopted it into their genetic signature permanently over time.

Another thing to note is that poachers found the naturally occurring Bions that were a part of the Dracsi to be quite valuable for their assembling properties, and even more so the idea of a controllable super-soldier, so to speak, was quite alluring. Some efforts were made to control individual Dracsi by first subduing them (via drug, torture, starvation, etcetera,) then forcing a mechanical shift using a parasite-like version of the Bions. With the individual already weak-willed, someone could potentially pilot them -- which is why some feel that giving their core to another is a wise move.