My First Mate Bob and I were running through the lush green jungle under heavy fire. My ship, Sassy, had her force field protecting our lander, but we were still too far from it. The three Pirate thugs were hot on our tails and their ship overhead was bombarding Sassy."Sassy, come over here and protect us, dammit!""I can't Captain. I'm being fired on and if I move they'll destroy the lander and your way off the planet," my ship answered me back. She had her own problems.My leather tote bag holding the dark gray Ancient Artifact gears weighed me down, slowing my escape through the jungle to the lander and safety. Bob and I had found them in a cave near an ancient ruin a mile away from the lander, up in some foothills.

"Hurry up, Bob, we haven't got all day!" I yelled. He was about six meters behind me and beginning to tire. The Pirates could tell and they were yelling in a language I didn't speak, redoubling their efforts to catch us. "Captain, I think." Bob started to say and then I heard a gurgle and a thump. I turned to see if he had been caught. He was nowhere to be seen. As I turned back to the lander and safety one of the Pirate blasts hit me in the thigh, but he was too far away and it only stung.

Bob had disappeared. The Pirates were yelling even more loudly, then suddenly they became deathly quiet. I turned toward them again to return fire and watched in amazement, my blaster drawn and ready to fight, as all three of them began running as fast as they could away from where Bob had disappeared."Ha!" I yelled at them. "Cowards!""Bob! Where the hell are you?" I called, beginning to step toward where I thought he was in the bushes. Just then there was a blood curdling scream, much louder than a human voice could possibly make and out from the shrubbery shot an eight foot long six legged monster with a four foot long spiked tail and a snout two feet long full of razor sharp teeth, moving at an incredible speed - after the Pirates!The Pirates were firing at it wildly as they ran away, probably antagonizing it more. I saw the beast take a swipe at one of them, a woman, and saw it's claws slice through muscle and bone and nearly sever her in two at the waist. But it didn't stop.

I crouched down and crawled through the sharp jungle plant leaves, cutting my hands and arms where they weren't protected by my archeologist khakis. I slowly approached where Bob should have been. When I got to Bob I saw why I had heard the gurgle. The front of his body was ripped open from his throat to his groin and his guts were spilled in a bloody mess all over the ground. He was as dead as could be. I threw up.