The Eagle's Nest

Kowalsk walked for a few minutes in silence. He knew that the enemy soldiers would not be too far away when suddenly he felt his vision starting to darken again, almost causing him to panic for a few moments. He blinked several times, rubbed his eyes hard, and when he opened them again, he breathed a sigh of relief as he could once again see in the darkness.

He then realized that the natural vision he now had was not something he could use at will. He discovered that he would make better use of that ability if he kept one eye open and the other closed, switching as needed for precision, and this way he could proceed without major issues. He heard a sound break the sepulchral darkness, and then the first shot came toward him, passing just a few centimeters from his head, forcing him to take cover and position himself for a counterattack.

It was his turn to fire. He took the first shot, the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth. He reloaded his weapon and fired five more times. With each shot, he hit his target, tallying up 10 targets in total. Fortunately for the traitors, Kowalsk was using ammunition that only caused sleep, but this did not prevent them from getting injured if they were positioned high up.

"Mr. Kowalsk, do you need help?" came the mental plea from Thilláila in his mind.

"Your help will be welcome, Thilláila. Ask Drakissa to send her pups to collect these sleeping worms; there will be more of them on the way."

In less than 5 minutes, Kowalsk could only see shadows passing around him. They were the dreikes in stealth mode, blending into the darkness, each returning with traitor soldiers in their powerful jaws, dragged along unaware of their situation, as they were all unconscious.

"Anything else, Mr. Kowalsk?" It was Thilláila again.

"Send an extra group of dreikes to collect the weapons and Thilláila…"

"Certainly, Mr. Kowalsk!"

"Stop calling me Mr. Kowalsk; just Kowalsk is fine."

"Yes, Mr. Kowalsk. I mean, Kowalsk."

"Thank you, Thilláila. For now, that's all I need."

The hunt continued and this time the intervals between shots were longer. But only two hours later, 25 traitor soldiers had been captured. However, Kowalsk was dissatisfied, as among the traitors he had not found the worst of them, the infamous Sergeant Dugger. Feeling even more motivated, he continued to infiltrate deeper into the seemingly endless subterranean tunnels.

Thilláila, frustrated by the situation, every time a few minutes passed without hearing any shots from Kowalsk, would communicate.

"What's the situation, Kowalsk?"

"The entire perimeter is secure. Ask Colonel Cleaner to send some technicians to create a lit environment down here."

Half an hour later, the environment that Kowalsk had to feel his way through to move safely was now completely illuminated. Colonel Cleaner stood with his mouth agape, accompanied by the other soldiers, who couldn't stop admiring the vast subterranean expanse made entirely of rock.

"I commanded this place for so long and never imagined there was such a secret down here" said the Colonel.

"Colonel Cleaner, are you really telling me you had no knowledge of this subterranean shelter beneath the Last Refuge Base?"

"Sergeant Kowalsk, I know it's a bit late for me to ask you to believe me 100%, but the subterranean area I knew might have seemed large to me, but it doesn't even come close to a tenth of this place. I'm certain that here, without squeezing too much, it can hold between 3,000 and 4,000 people, whereas the subterranean area I knew barely accommodated 300. I can assure you with all my certainty that I had no idea this place existed."

Thilláila, now beside Kowalsk, mentally confirmed:

"Kowalsk, the Colonel isn't lying."

The underground was vast and had some points where the height to the ceiling was over 5 meters, while in other lower parts it didn't even reach 3 meters in height. Even so, it was a gigantic hall with various escape tunnels, all of which, under Colonel Cleaner's orders, were meticulously checked, but there was no sign of Dugger, the traitor sergeant, or the rest of his subordinates.

Kowalsk analyzed that immense subterranean shelter for a long time, and seeing this, Colonel Cleaner asked:

"Do you have any big ideas for this space, Mr. Kowalsk?"

"Why do you ask, Colonel Cleaner? Are you considering giving me this space?"

"If you asked me, I wouldn't have any reason to refuse. I know I owe you, and I also understand that if you wanted, you could easily take the Last Refuge from me. Since you didn't do that and didn't demand anything from me because all you wanted was for me to acknowledge my mistakes, then of course I'll give you the underground. Do with it as you wish, and even if you don't tell me anything, I won't mind."

"Thank you, Colonel Cleaner. What I ask for now is that you and the Lieutenant, along with the others who were down there, keep this in the utmost secrecy from outsiders. I will also need a lot of manpower to work in the underground, people with surplus brute strength, so leave these traitor soldiers with me."

The Colonel looked at Kowalsk, who remained tense and alert all the time, and almost felt sorry for the traitor soldiers who would be under Kowalsk's orders.

"As for the supplies, I will need some of them for a while; I'll return them to you later. As for the manhole covers, have almost all of them welded, leaving only two with free access from the underground to the barracks. Also, keep constant sentinels on this side while I will keep dreikes inside the underground. Prohibit anyone from accessing this place without prior authorization, with the risk of being immediately devoured by one of the dreikes that will be watching this location. There may be some openings we haven't detected yet, so we will keep the dreikes on maximum alert. That said, I'll start the preparations immediately. And if possible, Colonel, ask the Lieutenant to wake up the traitors as soon as possible."

"Mr. Kowalsk, I know it's a lot of curiosity on my part, but what do you plan to do with this underground?"

"Colonel Cleaner, despite the circumstances not being the best, I really liked this discovery. After it is well-developed, this will be our underground fortress, known as the Eagle's Nest, the new refuge for human beings."