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

Ben had followed the rest of the group to the plateau. He saw Grikgar following him, and turned to the Unggoy briefly when he heard the reason he was following so close. 

[color=0072bc]"Shadow if you want, but be careful."[/color] He listened to Ryker's speech, then realized something rather embarrassing. He turned off the coms on his suit for a moment as he quickly conversed with his AI.

[color=0072bc]"Phong, does this suit come with active camo?"[/color]

[color=fff79a]"Yes, it most certainly does. Don't tell me you forgot about it."[/color]

[color=0072bc]"I haven't actually used it in- never mind. Can you create a shortcut command for it so that I can activate it on eye contact with the symbol in my HUD?"[/color]

[color=fff79a]"Processing request. Compiling program. Rendering icon. Done."[/color] No sooner than Phong had spoken did an active camouflage symbol appear on his helmet's screen:

[img]https://www.halopedia.org/images/thumb/2/29/ReachAA_-_Camouflage.png/100px-ReachAA_-_Camouflage.png[/img]

[color=0072bc]"Thanks."[/color] Ben reactivated his coms, knowing that too long of a gap in communications might give cause for an inquiry. Unexplained outages in communication could serve as cover for and a sign of unauthorized contacts with rebels and enemies, after all. If there was no cause to hide one's discourse, why turn off the mic? Fortunately, Ben knew the cutoff point after which the UNSC would find such a thing to be suspicious; one minute and seventeen seconds exactly. Anything less could be seen as a hardware failure or a momentary software glitch. 

[color=0072bc]"Sounds like a good plan. What type of infrastructure are we talking about?"[/color]