He quickly scurried up and settled on her shoulder, giving a small nod of thanks. "Okay. We're going to have to be extremely quiet when we enter the room."
She sighed, shaking her head. "We can talk about this more later. I just want to get back the creepy guy."
"He operates on sound from what I can tell. He's guarding the ha-" A spark jolted through Mo's eyes again and he yelped before scowling. "Damnit. You'll see when you get in there."
The door creaked loudly as she moved. The silhouette was dark against the flashing screens. It tilted its head slowly upon her opening the door, its neck making clicking noises as it listened to her breathing.
It continued monitoring the screen, its eight arms manipulating levers and pullies, but its head remained tilted as it listened for intruders. Dali had followed her in, his gears ticking noisily in his chest as he watched the creature in front of them. He placed his hand on his chestplate to try to quiet them and shot an apologetic look at Aspen; he couldn't help it.
There was a steel bump on the floor beyond the silhouette. It appeared to have a wheel on the top of it and looked similar to a hatch on a submarine. Mo raised his forepaw and pointed at it.
The screens would become clearer now. One of them looked like giant needles moving through the earth. Another showed the outline of a mountainous horizon with a red sun sinking over it. There were steel cords that Aspen would recognize as information lines that connected to the creature. It was coming more into view as well. It was made of a similar material as Mo, but it was not nearly as polished, with scrap pieces of bronze and silver having been welded together. Its back was still to their party, but she would see needlelike joints catching the light from the screen as it shifted to pull a lever.
She had to pass the Automaton as she headed towards the hatch. Dali followed her slowly, and its head turned with a sharp creak as it listened to Dali's humming. It had no face. It was unmarked, with thin sheet metal covering its brain and a crack along where its mouth should be. Its gears shifted under the metal, making small scraping noises as it worked. It watched the party with no eyes, listening to their every move.
