[h1][center][color=0072bc]Ben-E218[/color][/center][/h1] 

This was not what Ben had expected, but he went with it.

[color=fff79a]"Ben, be advised that our team leader has not been briefed on your-"[/color] Ben silenced the AI by focusing his eyes on an option to silence Phong which had been programmed into his HUD. Vael knew at least some of Ben's background as an assassin whose real mission was to shoot traitors, cowards, and anyone who would threaten the fragile alliance between humans and the Elites, but Aviza might as well have been Grikgar for all she knew about him. And Ben was under very clear orders NOT to let more people know about his true purpose; he might as well have outranked any of them for the purposes of preventing an interspecies incident. If the mission had to fail in order to keep the peace, Ben wouldn't hesitate to make that happen. They could always deploy a second team, guaranteed, but there was no guarantee that humanity could survive another war.

Still, he was also under orders to cooperate while the mission proceeded, and following Aviza was temporarily a part of that. He swallowed his disgust for the Spartan IV program and spoke up to Aviza. 

[color=0072bc]"Just make sure that the team keeps to its mission and that we do nothing to jeopardize the alliance. I hope the seriousness of the situation isn't lost on anyone. The human race nearly died in the last war, and that was before the Halo rings were discovered and [i]all[/i] sapient life was nearly exterminated. I trust we will [i]all[/i] be on our best behavior."[/color] 

[color=fff79a]"Do you want to see the odds that you're going to have to kill at least one of the team? They're getting higher every minute. The success rate of a mission led by a Spartan falls with every generation after the Spartan IIs. Even when-"[/color] Ben muted Phong once more, taking great care not to show any emotion or distrust by his body language. He had kept his helmet on the entire time, so nothing showed from that front.