Here's the start of the end of the first half of this, which I do know have a complete draft of. I changed a title of the previous chapter, which so far has had almost no reads. I'm still trying to come up with a way to keep a good pace with this that fits how often other people post.
It took a freight elevator to carry Franky in his exosuit. Two lightly armored squires came out of a second elevator, carrying the detached extra appendages of his suit. His support, the Flea and the Tick, managed to come out of one passenger elevator. They were met by Yor Forger and another woman with dark hair streaked with gray. "Franky, is that you?" Yor said through tears. He lifted his visor. She made her best effort to put her arms around his neck. "Oh, Franky! I saw Loidy, but I couldn't save him!"
"I'm sure you did everything you could," Franky said. He managed to put a digit of one metal hand on her shoulder.
Yor pointed to the other woman. "This is Sharon," she said. "We used to work together at Berlint city hall. She's been working as an administrator for Blackbell. She has schematics for the building, and she can access the arcscraper computer network."
"Good," Franky said. "Get her to the ground floor. We need all the information we can."
"No," Sharon said. "Yor is going for the spire. Believe me, she needs my help. This will do you more good." She held out a data disk, which Franky inserted into an integral slot in his armor. A stream of images displayed on the inside of his visor.
"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about," he said. "What can you tell us about the Queen?"
"She says she knew Twilight," Yor said. "I believe her. She has a child who was part of a human augmentation program. She says… she says my brother and I were in the same program."
Franky nodded, visibly saddened. "I'm sorry," he said. "It doesn't get easier. I know, I knew them both."
"For what it's worth, Blackbell completed their own investigation," Sharon said. "They didn't find out anything we didn't already know. Look, here's the thing to know. The elevator core for the Dodecagon is straight ahead. Yor needs to get there."
"All right," Franky said. He signaled the squires to reattach his secondary arms. "What about the opposition?"
"Most of them retreated when the Queen and her daughter left," Yor said. "The ones who stayed are hunkered down on the east end… mostly."
"All right, we can handle that," Franky said. "I've got the best exosuit in the world, and the best- ah, most experienced exotroopers in the corps with me!" As he spoke, there was a metallic rumbling like sheet metal being struck. He turned, to see that the lightly armored exotrooper called the Flea had picked up a vending machine and was shaking it.
"Hey," the trooper said. "It took my half-dalc!" Franky lowered his visor to hide a wince.
The Flea led the way through the man-made jungle. The Tick followed behind, jogging from one piece of cover to another. A single sniper fired down from an upper balcony. The two troopers fired in unison, the Flea with an ancient machine gun that fired an astounding 30 rounds per second, the Tick with an experimental automatic grenade launcher. "Did we get him?" the Tick said.
"We sure got something," the Flea said. There was a sizable hole in the balcony.
Franky came up behind them. "See, all clear!" he called back. "Come on!" He waved the women forward. Ahead, there was a hexagon of negative space, turned at right angles to the rest. Its edges were defined by evenly spaced elevators, two pairs on each side, connected by a latticework of walkways partially overgrown by vegetation. In the center was the glass-lined hexagonal shaft of the core, comprised of two elevators on every other side around vast air shafts and automated machinery in the center.
"Come with us, Franky!" Yor called over her shoulder.
"No," Franky said. "I'm staying. I'll catch up."
"I don't like this," the Tick said. He traversed the sight of his weapon across the treetops. There was no sound but the birds and insects.
"Aw, you always say that," the Flea said. "Say, what was the whole thing between you and that lady?"
"Well, I can tell you my side," Franky said. "There was a WISE agent who went by the name Fiona Frost. Her code name was Nightfall. We went out, actually, a few times. Thing was, she never smiled. She never laughed. She didn't make friends. As far as anyone knew, she'd never made love except on honeytrap duty, and the men who were around to talk said she was all business, no fun. Some people said it was because her trainer told her never to show emotion. Some said it was because she could never have the only man she had ever loved. From what I could see, she couldn't love anybody, or she wouldn't let it show.
"There was one man who could break that shell. His name was Yuri Briar, Yor Forger's brother. He was also an officer of the SSS. But for him, she lit up. He got through, all right, 'cause she ended up with one in the pipe. They married, they had the kid, they became the first joint liaisons between WISE and the SSS… and then they all three got on a plane to San Salvador. It never landed, and they were never seen again."
"Whoa, man, that's a bad buzz," the Flea said. He patted Franky's shoulder piece, producing a metallic ringing. The Tick tensed and took cover behind a picturesque stump. They all relaxed as the reverberation died down, leaving only the sounds of the forest. Just then, they heard the clear sound of the chime of an opening elevator on the uppermost balcony.
"It could be somebody who got away," Franky said.
"Then they can call for help," said the Tick.
"I'll go look!" the Flea said. "Cover me!"
"I'm always covering your butt!" the Tick said. "Wait for me!" The Flea slung his weapon and scrambled up a tree, aided by his stripped-down armor. The Tick hurried up a graceful latticework of a stairway that shook under his weight and the force of his steps.
"Dammit, wait!" Franky called. He looked up, then in the direction the women had gone. "All right, I'm holding the rear!"
The Flea reached the top of the tree. "Guys! Hey guys!" he called out. "It's just a kid!" Indeed, the platinum-haired, red-eyed girl stood before him.
"Dammit, we're looking for a kid!" Franky shouted.
The Flea looked back to the girl. He reached for his machine gun. "You aren't going to give me any trouble, are you?" he said.
"No," Willow answered. Her smile became a grin.
There was a scream as the Flea hurtled across the vast open space of the greenhouse. He narrowly missed a pair of elevator shafts, then struck the far balcony with enough force to crumple the railing. He then bounced and dropped, crashing through vines and branches.
Willow's laugh was as melodious as the birdsong as it drifted down from above. "Oh, Daddy," she said, "you are so funny…"