Swamped

It occurs to you that the side tunnels go in a number of odd directions. Some of them even seem to loop back to here.

You haven't studied greatrats closely, but you've read up on them. Their tunnels tend to just go in straight lines. These tunnels are more like...

Oh, hell. You run up to the leader of the nearest squad.

"Burrowers," you whisper. "Make too much noise and you'll wake them."

"Burrowers? Here? There's barely any ground to burrow in the swamp, unless you go deep."

"Well, yeah, but the base was built on Bog Hill for pretty much that exact reason. This is about the most solid ground we've got here. If burrowers ended up in the swamp, where else would they be?"

"Well, damn. We're not equipped to fight burrowers if they're provoked. But how are we supposed to deal with the nest without making too much noise?"