Nearly a century prior floor forty-two had been filled with life, quite literally it had been filled with life - there had been cages full of creatures from across the Universe stored right here; it was the room where Leo had spent most of his time since his 'crowning' as the Lord of Machines, Deus was ordered to capture different species and simply deliver them here with no further questioning allowed.
To further add to the secrecy Leo had ensured the entire floor was self-sufficient and off of Mammons' grid, what little Deus knew of the rooms structure was from when he had come with the caged creatures. It was the only part of his own stronghold that could be considered a complete mystery to him.
The elevator shaft door opened into an expansive hall: cages ripped to pieces, blood staining the walls and the bones of creatures that had devoured each other to survive.
'Did he just release them all?' Deus asked himself as his body crushed brittle bones underfoot; a thin layer of dust covered everything, a suitable appearance for a room that no one had stepped foot in for so long.
Deus moved through the room slowly as he took in the carnage: steel walls with claw marks each the size of a grown mans arm, a skull the size of a wardrobe and the giant skeletal remains of some beast that had tiny chunks taken from the bone like it had been slowly being chewed through by hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny creatures.
In fact, most of the bones he saw had the exact same chunk-like pattern taken out of them without fail - some had slightly larger 'bite' marks while some were as tiny as what you would expect a mouse to make if it bit your own, there were an assortment of sizes to the marks that seemed random at times.
There was one thing that remained consistent however, the further Deus walked the less bones he began to see and yet the blood staining the various workstations and cages still remained, as if whatever was down here had been living on these bones for the many years since there had last been fresh meat for it, or them, to eat.
Click, Click, Click.
Three short clicks, the same sound he'd heard from the elevator shaft, came from somewhere in the darkness in front of him. Deus considered cutting the power to the Labour Drones' inbuilt lights but decided against it, it wouldn't do him much good to not be able to see an unknown creature that likely had adapted to living in the dark all these years; the light would probably be his best weapon against such a foe if that was the case.
Without slowing down he continued forward at an even pace; while he had no weapons to defend himself the sheer strength that a Labour Drone could display due to their role as menial labourers was enough lethal force for him to retreat if he needed to do so.
Click, Click, Click.
Click, Click, Click, Click.
The clicks began to grow louder, they began to sometimes overlap each other as if they were speaking. No, not as if, they were speaking: communicating and responding to one another, sometimes there would be a third interrupting the two but Deus could clearly hear three distinctly different creatures speaking with the same clicking sounds.
'So they're social creatures, interesting.' He was certain that every creature he'd delivered down here had been from species that roamed alone without exception, it had been one of the strangely specific requests that Leo had asked of him when picking which species he would capture.
He was also certain that he'd only ever brought down one of each species, so either Leo had managed to source them himself without his knowledge - which was near impossible as just as Leo was monitoring Deus he had been doing the same, at least to the extent where everything that was brought to him was reported to Deus without exception.
Or he was cloning these creatures, "What the hell were you doing down here Leo." Deus muttered; Leo had always shown a fanatical interest in the development of Artificial Intelligence alone, but if he'd been experimenting on biological creatures with that same fanaticism then Deus couldn't even imagine what he was going to find down here.
Click...
The sounds went silent with a final click as Deus came to the source of the sounds; most likely they'd noticed him and were observing him now from somewhere in the darkness. "Show yourself." He said calmly, several seconds went by as only the quiet whirring of his own power supply shattered the silence.
He hadn't expected it to work but he had been testing for their response, 'Most likely unable to understand speech.' He made a note to himself as he started to look around and illuminate the area around him from the darkness in search of the creatures. Nothing.
Not even a shadow of whatever the things were that he'd been hearing.
'If only I had my own body.' He didn't have thermal imaging or the night vision that were built in modules for his real body, the Labour Drone wasn't meant for combat or exploration after all. The only real benefit of its design were its reinforced body which allowed it to not only exert strength five times that of a grown human man but also make it as strong as one of the cages around him - not that it would do him much good considering how the cages around him had been ripped to shreds by something.
Click.
The sound came directly from behind him; he swung around without a second thought and immediately illuminated the space behind him, a creature the size of a small child was behind him: standing on nine talon-like legs, its torso was human except rather than hands it had three claws growing out of what looked like a tumour on its stomach, what would have been its head was instead a fleshy mass in the shape of a horn - it had numerous 'mouths' over its head filled with tiny sets of teeth ranging from animal to human.
Click.
Click.
From behind him he heard another two familiar clicks, he swung around quickly to see two smaller versions of the creature blocking his way back to the elevator shaft had blocked his advance further through the floor.
They were the exact definition of what would be called 'nightmare fuel' as they stared him down, Deus couldn't see any real 'eyes' or 'ears' on them but he could tell they knew where he was. He took a step backwards and they turned their heads in his direction, he took a step forward again and they moved their heads with him.
'Are they trying to figure out whether I'm food or not?' He couldn't help but question, something that wasn't food being able to move was probably a new concept to them, whatever 'they' were.
It looked as if Leo had simply extracted DNA from a number of species and most likely even himself and performed experiments, combining them without considering whether he should and only asking himself if he could.
'Anything created by a madman is at its core just as insane as its creator.' He recalled a line he had heard once during his conquests, it applied perfectly to the situation he was currently facing. 'Although, that applies to me as well.' He mused.
Click! Click!
He turned back round to the larger of the creatures, the strange clicking sounds came from different mouths as it spoke, it was like it was trying to probe what he was before it attacked.
"Click, Click!"
Deus replayed the sound logs that his body had recorded from earlier, the larger of the creatures went silent as it listened to his response...
Thanks for the chapter!