The Violent, the last Circle of Upper Hell.

The last step to level five had an inch of water over it.  Pai leaned down, touched it, and put her finger in her mouth.  “Heavy water.”

They are ruining everything here for no reason!  Graf took a moment to steady his thoughts.  A glance at his wife had her give an almost imperceptible nod.  If we clear this, we leave.

Unlike the earlier levels, as this was the branch point for the mines, proper, there was not a central corridor, nor was there anything like doors or hatches.  Several of the branching corridors were still rough-hewn.  And, as his wife had said, he, too, could hear yelling.

Dropping to a crouch, he made several gestures to his team.  Careful advance, leapfrogging, assume all contact hostile.  No one was at all resentful that his android wife never left his side, as they also all appreciated the force multiplier to their detachment.  No words now, each pair would move forward, use IR and UV, indicate clear, then the next two would move.  They were getting closer to the yelling.

A man stumbled into their view.  Skinsuit with a hammer and sickle.  That’s retro, Graf thought.  One halting step once he saw them.

“Kill me.  Please.”

He fell forward onto the uneven ground of Level Five.  The flesh from his back was gone.  From the gaping holes, Pai was instantly aware that most of his organs had been torn out.  A now critical situation, she used her mind to broadcast to the team via their earbuds.

*We must retreat.  Now.  There is nothing to save here but ourselves and those on Level One.*

She noted her husband give a nod.  The lead two teams glanced back, and he indicated they fall back.  Leapfrogging in reverse, they were past him as he rose from his crouch–

Didn’t see, didn’t hear.  He wanted to call to his team, but gurgling was all he could do.

GRAF!  Her husband’s blood was all over her face.  Pai instantly assessed his throat was gone and would bleed out in less than a minute.  Given her body’s strength, tearing her suit’s sleeve off was nothing.  She wrapped it around his neck, tight, and secured it with the small knife she kept at her right ankle.  The time for subtlety was over.

“We retreat in good order, NOW!” she shouted.

Tossing her husband over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry, she waited until the six humans were in the stairwell.  Two men came out of a tunnel far off to the right.  She shot both, then walked backward with her light burden.  Round and round, up and out.  Back to the five they met before.  Only three had suits.

Pai shot the man and woman who did not.  Mercy killing, she thought.  “Leave the dead woman’s body,” she told the team.  “There will be nothing here in a few hours.”

Across the Moon’s surface and back to the shuttle, aware her husband would be dead in three minutes, Pai did her signature ten G takeoff to get them back to a medical facility.