"Please, don't do this to me. I just wanted a decent life. A life in which nobody hurts you, or tries to sell you as a sex slave, or rapes you. Please, Sentinel, please. I... I will do whatever you require of me. But please, don't. If you take me back in, you will be killing me. So you might as well just do it now. I'm disarmed, I'm still weak... I won't try to fight. Do it."<br/><br/><br/>Jacks heard the young woman plead to take her life, it created tension in his chest, and he could not explain the feelings he was experiencing. He hated hearing her tell him of her plight in life, and all things considered he didn't blame her for what she'd done. She was holding on to his remaining hand and weeping, with both of her hands holding his and not the tattered wool blanket, it fell away, revealing her beautiful body once again. This too made strange unknown feeling swim through him, a stirring in his groin for one. Maybe it was this sort of biological malfunction that the men at the monitor station had seen in him.<br/><br/>"I would never hurt you....." He started to say, but realized that he was ignoring his inherent programming and then his system corrected itself. "I am not authorized to execute any human beings unless the situation warrants lethal intervention, none is warranted here." Jacks stated firmly.<br/><br/>He could see the young woman was starting to loose hope and he wanted nothing more than to pick her up and hold her in his arms, tell her that everything would be ok and that he loved her....Wait, that is illogical. Sentinels don't feel love, although some rich woman in Futera did marry an occasional Sentinel, it wasn't for love.<br/><br/><br/>"Wait!" He suddenly shouted, frightening her. "My long range scanners are picking up a large group of marauders headed in our direction. They are riding hover bikes and moving at a high rate of speed. Escape is unlikely, we should focus on barricading and reenforcing this position, it is higher ground and tactically superior. " Jacks stated. He first moved into the next room where he stowed the few rifles they'd scavenged off of the last group of marauders. He threw two of the strapped weapons over his shoulders and locked and loaded the third. M's own plasma pistol remained.<br/><br/>He walked toward her and held the weapon out, knowing full well that he'd essentially just spelled out the poor girls death sentence, and that handing her a weapon might mean that she'd use it on him, but he didn't have a choice. He couldn't cover all the windows and doors in this ruined building on his own, so he'd just have to trust her. "Here take this, If you get a clear shot, take it." He said, hoping that she wouldn't use it on him. "Can you do this?" He asked her.<br/><br/>With that the roar of the hoverbike gang started to swarm around the ruined building, 20 or more of the bikes came in at high speeds. They revved the big engines and stirred the sands of the wastelands outside into a vortex dropping visibility to almost nothing. From a distance away, the crackle of a megaphone clicked on and the men let their bikes fall into an idle.<br/><br/>"Helllo in there! This is Hector Blood, leader of the Bloodsnakes! I believe you encountered my brother Hugo earlier today. You blew his head off, and although I appreciate the opportunity at career promotion, he was still my brother, so I'm going to have to seek revenge.  It was stupid to leave Ricky alive, you remember the fella you turned into a eunuch.  He was still barely breathing when we arrived, pointed us in your direction, so thanks for that! Now I am only going to offer you this option once, so listen closely. If you surrender now, we'll deactivate your fancy robot boyfriend first, so he doesn't have to watch us play fill-the-chick-with-dicks with your sweet little ass. I personally will guarantee that you will be given a bottle of booze and some pills to help ease your strife.....So, what's it going to be? You wanna do this 'easy' or try your luck at the hard way?" Hector Blood called from the safety of cover, two stories below in the harsh wastelands.<br/><br/>Jacks turned to M, a confused look on his face. "Why are badlanders so obsessed with rape?" He queried.