The Trilisk Supersedure by Michael McCloskey

ten meters through clumps of vegetation. He deployed his
Veer suit’s head guard 50 percent with a link command, just to add protection
to the back of his head. He nudged aside plant stalks with his rifle. More and
more, he found himself squatting to take a peek under the greenish clumps
growing on the alien foliage. From a position near the ground, he could see
much farther, but it was pretty uncomfortable to crawl along for any distance.
    He felt
a bit sluggish. Shipboard training had gone well with all the extra space on
the Clacker , but he may have overdone it. He still wasn’t used to
Vovokan ships or equipment. The VR facilities were amazing. And the
quasi-virtual training machines he’d prayed up with Shiny’s help were top-notch
as well. He only regretted that their team was so small. With the Clacker ,
he felt like he could train an entire company.
    I don’t
even want to run Parker Interstellar Travels. What would I do with more people?
I guess I would train some great teammates like Telisa and hit the dirt on more
unexplored planets.
    Ever
since the UNSF had trained Magnus to “hit the dirt” on planetary assaults, he
had been hooked on it. Now that he was a free agent, it was easier than going
in after the assault machines and cleaning up. They just dropped on whatever
alien ruins they felt curious about and poked around.
    He
skirted the largest ruins at the center of the city, making his way around them
on the northern side. The plants were numerous, even in the city. The way they
grew from the round fissures in the rocks made them look like they’d been there
for a long time. Maybe they had been part of the city at its peak. But he knew
that conclusion was suspect: Who knew how these alien plants worked? Maybe they
somehow drilled their own holes in the rock wherever a seed fell. If they even
had seeds. Thinking of seeds made him remember the green worms: maybe that was
how the plant spread. Its “runners” really did run. Or squirm.
    They
could just as easily dig their way up from underground , he
mused.
    Up
ahead, he came into contact with another scout unit headed back. The scout had
turned back toward the Clacker once the jamming started. He turned it
around and added it to his team. He checked the machine’s logs. It hadn’t
encountered any humans, though it had seen one of the clear snakelike creatures
hiding among the stalks.
    Those
things might be dangerous, even though my Vovokan spheres protected me once.
    He
stopped after half an hour and asked the forward scout to do a passive scan.
For five minutes Magnus waited, crouched beside the ruin of a single-room
building the size of a tiny hovel. He had plenty of time to look it over. The
structure looked old. It had grilles on each face. The bars on the grilles were
of a different design: they were made from the plant stalks.
    Like
wood, he thought. But all the others we’ve seen are tough stone
or ceramic. So this guy must have been poor. Or this building just predates the
others.
    Magnus
took a peek inside with a light. As he expected, a grille was in the center of
the ceiling. There wasn’t one on the floor. The walls and floor were littered
with brown and green refuse that looked like rotted furniture or tools. Some
short sticks came out of the walls and ceiling, but nothing else remained
intact.
    Magnus
walked around the building to check out the far side. Two large plants grew
from breaches in the rock next to the building. He saw something new there:
grilles across the openings where the plants emerged from the ground. The
stalks of the plants grew through the holes. The grilles matched those of the
building, made from pieces of cured or painted plant stalks.
    That
means they went down there. Telisa will be interested. Maybe they lived in
those natural plant pots before they made their own structures. Like ancient
Terrans living in caves.
    A small
gray critter of some kind darted inside. Magnus pointed his weapon. Thoughts of
the vermin