After Dr. Mizuno reluctantly allowed Lt. Saeki to leave, he was given a few days of leave to rest. By given, the Captain basically kicked him of the duty roster with considerable protest from the Lieutenant. Regardless of the fact that overexertion still keeps the healing wounds opening up. Reluctantly, the Lieutenant finally agreed and stayed at home for the next few days.

Of course...that doesn't stop him from his own work at home.

Kurio had a small house in the military residential area. While this was slightly unusual for a single male, he had more than enough financial resources for that much. The house would be remarkably plain, with no exterior decoration. Inside would be basic furniture and electronics, with a few pictures hanging. The most prominent one was of Kurio and a younger, red haired girl. The image was in front of a house in a yard when the world still had proper seasons with the cherry blossoms in the wind dancing above the two.

In the living room, Kurio sat on the floor with a toolkit, electronics kit, and a number of empty .50 caliber shells and numerous small devices. The exploding rounds that he used were not a standard issue item, and technically they were against regulation and law, but since he used them exclusively against Covenant creatures, it was overlooked. Few could deny they were effective. Yet, until regulation change, Kurio has to make every single round by hand. The remote detonator and the custom explosive compound made for slightly dangerous work, but Saeki knew how to take proper precautions at this point. There have only been a couple of accidents...

It had been a few days after the ice golem attack and Ashley had been busy with work on a few projects of his own. He had finaly got a bit of down time from the lab since he needed it after doing some swiping a few grams of the crystals. The science officer had been curious on how Lt.Saeki was doing after the wounds he got from the battle with the Ice Golem. He had went to the hospital to check but, learned that he was discharged and was sent home to heal. So Ashley went home first and made a concoction a hot mulled cider and put it into a insulated container so it would stay nice and hot by the time he got to Kurio's home. He figured that a few hot drinks with a fellow soldier would be good comradeship.

Ashley was dressed casualy since he did have a day off from the lab and got to his home. He then knocks on the door to see if Kurio was at home at least.

As Kurio hears the knocks, he jumps a little, not having expected company. When a man is in his own home, even someone like Kurio would let his guard down a bit. He stands up and stretches his arms, then rubbing his neck. Who in the hell could be here at this point? The Captain told him to stay at rest, so the guys like Stogie and Sharp would leave him alone since they tended to echo the Captain's sentiments. As he walks to the door, he hums to himself.

"I don't know but I've been told, annoying me gets really old.." he mumbles, making humor out of one of the American marching things, then unlocking the door and opening it, finding the egghead from the theater.

"Ahh...I thought I smelled scrambled eggs. What do you want? Off duty currently, so if it's an emergency you might want to get someone else to fight the scary monster, though I suppose they'd be just as useless as the other recruits were that day.." he says with a sarcastic chuckle.

Ashley was greeted by a rather sour Kurio and was not expecting a reaction like that. "Really now a childish remark like that to greet someone. I just wanted to see how you were doing. Please if it were an emergency there would be people running about like chickens with there heads cut off." he said also being a bit snarky although his concern for Kurio was real and not something faked. But seeing that would be a moot point in some aspects. "Also I am very interested in the special rounds you used against that Class IV Covenant a few days ago. I would like to know how they work. There might be a chance for me to upgrade them more if I know how they work." he said since he was there when the fight happened.

Either way he was at least trying to make a friend at least since most of the other techs there aside from Taika were kind spineless since the Director berated them on a daily basis. They got worn down and kind of lifeless since none of them were able to do something. Although from what he saw that Kurio was not a friendly person off the bat. Ashley reminded himself this guy was a MP so he could be snarky with people and not give a damn about others and just on his own life.

"...I blame the pain meds. Or the fact it's my house. Off shift. With unexpected and unannounced company." he says, shrugging and pondering the fact that he decided to show up related to the weapon he used. An egghead doesn't just showup for homebrew weapons. There was probably something more, but he was trying to get his foot in the door. Whatever, it's not like Saeki had anything else to do that day.

"Eh...it's not really anything that special. I've just managed to put in a remote detonation system in my revolver, along with a custom revolver shell that has a probably inefficient but high yield explosive compound added into the cap. The shell is longer than usual to accommodate for the added casing and safety against premature detonation along with the detonation receiver. It's just the simply fact is in the event of Covenant, standard lead doesn't cut it. Plus, since any combat in an urban area has a much higher chance of collateral damage, then you have to control when they go off, or set up a multiple explosion chain." he says boredly, gesturing at the table where he was making the shells.

"...I was just taking the rest time to make some replacements after the battle with that regenerator. The ones that regenerate are a pain in the ass, since you have to keep attacking until they run out of juice. Making these things by hand is a pain." he says with a slight sigh before sitting down on his couch.

"So...are you really here to admire my handiwork that probably doesn't compare to the nutty professors man in a can setup, or is there something else?" he says, then yawning a little, waiting for Ashley.

Ashley knew only too well on how pain meds can make you grumpy when dealing with people."Still though its pretty impressive, and I have made a few things on the side my self" he said and pulled out what was a handle that looked like it was to a larger box cutter. Ashley taps the end of it and a four foot blade pops out from the blade end. "Its a extendable blade made from a ceramic composit. The blade is sharp as any steel and just as durable. If the blade breaks tap the end of it and a replacement will pop in and extend. So far I am only able to place one extra blade within the handle here" said Ashley and taps the bottom end of the handle and the blade retracts down into the handle. He then puts it away in a pocket of his coat.

"Trust me we can but well most of the people there are giving good ideas for things but the Director just turns them down left and right. Saying the science is not there or a flawed equation on how it works, and if someone argues it he sends them to Siberia. Aside from that yeah I do admire your work. Plus I haven't talked with anyone yet that can just home brews there own weapons or tech like that" said Ashley as he did make some of his own stuff at home since he liked to make stuff on the side. He himself was working on something big at home to see electrical fields in devices. To try and prevent homemade bombs or other leathal devices that would harm fellow soldiers.

Kurio blinks as he sees Ashley pull some kind of a sword out of a 'hilt' of some sort. Melee combat to him was more of a last resort. Replacing a blade was also questionable to him: if a covenant was capable of breaking a blade in the first place, what good would the second one be? Kurio then shook his head, reminding himself that the type of weapon he had might be good as a means of defense against more human attackers. The overcritical method that he had to assess 'worth'

"Well, that guy will get what's going to come to him one day. He revels in death too much as an opportunity for what twisted thing he calls science. He will prey on the fallen and weakened at their most desperate to sign up for what he sees as advancement." he says with a lot of contempt for the Director, but he shrugs at Ashley's last remark.

"It's better than the alternative of doing nothing differently and dying just as quickly as the rest. The thing most people don't seem to get is that Covenant types are more vulnerable to opposing forces...such as the Incendiary Grenade I used on that walking ice thing. If I had more incendiaries then I could have probably subdued it easily enough before those....girls...came about." he says, clearly annoyed at the unknown factor that had gotten involved.

Ashley saw that Kurio was not too amused with his combat blade and shrugged within his mind. Now someone felt almost like himself that the Director was just a douchebag. What was more that it was someone not from his department so Ashley was already thinking of a future ally but not now or anytime soon. "I just wonder why he is even there for that matter, Since he only made SPECTOR unit and so far nothing else after that. And those tin cans are just odd.....they feel like there not human" he said as he saw them a few days ago and they did not even feel human. Like they were mechanical soldiers to go out and do there orders, kill everything thing, then report back in. "One major thing I am working on is some sort of device to find cloaked or hidden covenant freaks. So we all don't get ambushed from them" he said and then he heard about his distaste for the unknown females showing up at the battle.

"Agreed but.....the thing is. Why have they showed up now and what is there purpose in the large scheme of things? Although this is just one encounter with those Sailor Senshi.......I think there is going to be more encounters with those girls" said Ashley as he was not sure what to think on them. If he only had more resources to work with at the lab or the director being less of a pain in the ass. Then maybe he could get some where with all of this.

"...Because he sells himself as a genius or something to Masuou. The General wants someone to do the job and he measures it by what he sees in the field. SPECTRE gets results done, even if that's all they see, but the idea of a cybernetic soldier is so romanticized that he ignores whatever else the doctor does when he has to focus on more immediate problems." Saeki says as he exhales a little and then looks at Ashley.

"They...used to be human. Your doc likes to poach special ops units that get hit hard, fast, and often lose limbs in covenant battles. That's what happened to my group before I went into the MP division. We were on a covert op in Sapporo when it went to shit, something about looking for a crystal the Covenant hid somewhere. One didn't make it back, the others had a variety of injuries, I'll spare you the details, but it made his 'robo mode' offer sound appealing to them. I declined...I have my reasons. Doctor's always had it out for me ever since, but he ignores me these days after the first ten recruitment or so got a prompt screw off." he says, then looking at Ashley with a slight skepticism.

"A scanner huh...would probably be useful if that kind of thing would work. I don't expect anything out of Matou, but if that were possible, I'd have thought that a private corp or the Americans would have made that by now." he says, then shrugging again at the remark about the girls.

"Right...short skirt girl scout brigade...I have no bloody clue what to think. Yeah, they were able to run that regenerator off real fast, but then why don't they enlist like duty and honor dictates they should. Also, apparently they associate with some freak who attacked me in the hospital...so clearly they don't either care or understand how the real world works." he says, an annoyed expression comes across his face at the memory.

Ashley agreed with some of Kurio's sentaments "The thing I worry about with those guys. Is that, have they lost there free will after becoming one of those SPECTRE soldiers. Because if there more machine then man, they could be hacked and reprogramed" he said not sure how much of these SPECTRE's were machine to man. He did not want to think ill of those that saw this as a way to get back into the fight. Or saw it as a way to walk or grasp something again. But then he hears Kurio tell his tale about his team's demise or massive defeat. This made him frown greatly as he saw the Director as a scavenger now more then ever. Plus it really sickend him that this man was playing of these poor soldiers time where they were weak.

The other thing that came to mind was a crystal that the Covenant had hidden away somewhere. This alerted him and tried to keep his face kind of blank on that subject. "I can understand that some soldiers do want to continue the fight which I can respect there choice. But I would feel less human if I started to add mechanical parts to myself. Would I still be human or something else" he said and then moved on to the next thing that came to mind. "Trust me Matou, is not going to do a damn thing. From what your saying, and forgive me for sounding sinacal. He wants more soldiers gravely wounded so he can turn them into his play things"he said feeling even more bitter about the man he was working for.

"I am really close on a breakthrough though. Once I do, I am going to do field tests with it. Since the only way I am going to get anything to get a chance to get anything looked at is if this thing is fool proof" he said mentioning his goal slightly. "I want these guys to come back in one piece to there families" he said and then hears his views on the Sailor Senshi and it raised his eyebrow to the fact there was a male that was like the senshi.

"I agree with you in some degree. But a male...that's a new one to me. None the less, if there killing off Covenant monsters. They should not be an enemy yet, as the Covenant are the bigger fish to fry then these group of unknowns. If we do observe them, perhaps one day we can find out how there doing that stuff" he said to Kurio.

"Who's to say they lost their free will, at least not completely." Kurio says shifting his eyes away from Ashley for a bit. He sighed thinking of his team, hoping that they had some semblance of their old lives as part of that unit. There was no contact from them since then, not that Kurio had expected any at this point. He was faced the ground and didn't noticed the twitch that Ashley likely had on his face when the crystal was mentioned.

"I don't have an answer for that question. It's something I considered deeply, but to be honest I wanted to be sure I was there to see my sister again if she ever woke up. It's uncharacteristically sentimental of me to say something like that, much less to an egghead I don't really know, but that's all it really boiled down to. As far as that maniac goes, he can go drown as far as I'm concerned. Just stop talking about Matou, okay?" he says, his eyes politely saying 'shut the hell up' to Ashley on such a subject, before he then tilts his head just a little at Ashley.

"Really...and you really think this gadget you got will work? What do you think you're doing differently that hundreds of minds before you haven't tried?" Kurio says this time was less sarcasm and more of a honest inquiry. He had long given up hope or the idea that anyone out there was going to make headway after the consistent lack of success up to this point. When Ashley expressed his views on the costumed ones running around, he shrugged.

"Yeah, but at the same time we can't let them run about unchecked. Who's to know when one of them decides the Covenant is offering a better deal or just wants to extort the public for money or benefits of some sort. 'Pay us or we let your town get blown up'. Plus, we can't rely on vigilantes to keep the peace. That's just not how it works.." he says, his eyes narrowing as he then returned to his station and begins working on attaching another remote detonator to a round. His technique was practiced but to someone like Ashley it was likely a touch clumsy and could be much better.