Valiant Hero

Valiant Hero is one of the sixteen endings in Completing the Mission.

It involves Henry and Charles teaming up to storm and destroy the established Toppat Orbital Station.

It takes place after the "Government Supported Private Investigator" and "Presumed Dead" endings in the endings hub.

Plot
After escaping The Wall by faking his death, Henry, presumed deceased by all parties, is left aimless in a Tavern within the middle of a snowy tundra, watching Alice Hamilton's BCC News broadcast about the now in-orbit Toppat Orbital Station. He hears a noise outside, where he sees three Toppat members near a crashed truck getting beamed up by the station, with Charles Calvin arriving just too late to stop them. Overjoyed to see his supposedly deceased friend, Charles invites him to take down the Toppats, whose activities are also plaguing his career and he now considers the feud personal.

Charles and Henry depart in a Government Prototype Spaceship. After closing onto the station, Charles asks Henry on how should he proceed with the mission:
 * [X] Drop Off: Charles goes close to the station to drop off Henry, but they are detected by Burt Curtis and Sven Svensson and the ship was destroyed by lasers. Message: ★☆☆☆☆ The dude straight up drove into lasers.
 * [X] Beam Aboard: Charles teleports Henry into the station, right next to Sven, who draws his weapon instantly. Message: Welcome aboard! Now get out.
 * [X] Air Cannon: Charles encases Henry in a slow air bubble and attempts to provide him company, but Henry eventually dies from using up all the air in the bubble. Message: You used up all the air already? You glutton.
 * Trash Ball: Charles provides Henry a space suit and hides him inside a clump of refuse before launching it at the station. The sphere shatters, but Henry remains undetected.

Henry hangs onto a vent exhaust, while Charles remains in stealth, attempting to provide further support:
 * [X] Super Accurate Laser Shot: Charles attempts to fire a laser that will punch a hole for Henry to crawl through. However, the station's alarms begin to flare due to a perceived attack. Burt Curtis has the station's shields maximized and Henry is sliced in half. Message: Shields up!
 * [X] Hot Knife: Charles tells Henry to hit a button on his helmet, which deploys a glowing hot knife, but it floats away before Henry can grab it. Message: Butterfingers? [Clicking the text will award the "Greasy Delight" achievement].
 * Charles: Charles rams his spaceship into the station and inflicts significant structural damage, but successfully knocks both of them inside.

The collision inadvertently damages the core and it enters meltdown, threatening to explode at any moment while prompting an evacuation. With their mission objective accomplished, Henry and Charles attempt a hasty exit. They go into another room with a jammed door. As it is the only way through, Henry and Charles attempt to get past by: As they are crawling through the vent, a distant explosion is heard, and Charles states that they are running out of time. They get to the end, where they see escape pods: Henry and Charles prepare for their ride back to Earth when they are suddenly ambushed by Jacked Hughman. Henry is forced out of the escape pod, prompting Charles to tackle Hughman and throw Henry back inside. Before Charles can make it back to the pod himself, Hughman tackles him down. The pod closes with only Henry inside and launches into space for Earth, leaving Charles on the doomed space station. Before the pod takes off, Charles tells Henry not to worry about him and that he'll find another way to escape.
 * [X] Hack: Charles attempts to open the door via password guessing before eventually admitting to Henry that he really has no clue on how to progress. Message: bruh.
 * [X] Lift: Henry and Charles attempt to lift the door together to get through. They manage to do so at first, but it falls and crushes Henry's body and Charles' hands. Message: Are you lifting with your back?
 * Vent: Charles and Henry use the nearby vent to escape.
 * [X] Luxury Escape Pods: Inside the escape pod marked "LUXURY", they find six elite Toppats already inside. When Charles asks if there's extra space in the pod for two more people, the elites draw their firearms on him and Henry. Message: Rude.
 * [X] Occupied Escape Pod: The right-most pod is already carrying a fleeing Toppat member, HazMatt, who is startled by Henry and Charles' presence after Henry opened the door. Matt closes the door back down, but he also triggers the pod's reverse thrusters, which cause the pod to violently crash into Henry and Charles, killing both. Message: Why do they even HAVE that lever?
 * Cracked Escape Pod: Henry opens the cracked escape pod with some degree of difficulty, where they find nobody inside.

A few moments later, Charles informs Henry that he managed to defeat Hughman and he should be able to escape anyway, citing that he can still find an empty escape pod. He remarks on their success but is abruptly cut off when the station's power core is overwhelmed and explodes, killing him. Shattered at this sight, Henry screams in grief, and pounds on the pod's window, refusing to believe in Charles' death before slumping over on the glass.

Henry and numerous escape pods eventually land on earth and he meets General Hubert Galeforce and Paul Ascott in a military tent. Paul informs Galeforce that the station has been destroyed, to his delight. Puzzled by Henry's depression, the general attempts to address him.

A tombstone erected in Charles' honor now resides on a cliff overlooking a sunset, with another headset laid on it. Henry pays a visit to his fallen friend and gives him a salute.

Characters
Italics indicate they only appear in this pathway.
 * Henry Stickmin
 * Charles Calvin
 * Alice Hamilton
 * Elmer Paizano
 * Marcus Blåberd
 * Gremlin
 * Mr. Villain
 * Wilhelm Krieghaus
 * Burt Curtis
 * Sven Svensson
 * HazMatt
 * 2 Unknown blue-shoed Toppats
 * 2 Unknown Toppats with dull-brown shoes
 * Unknown Silver Hat Toppat
 * The Leprechaun
 * Ahnoldt Schwarz
 * Albert Poshley
 * Carol Cross
 * Mr. Macbeth
 * Gene Fredrickson
 * Jacked Hughman
 * Paul Ascott
 * General Hubert Galeforce

Trivia

 * This ending starts 10-14 days after Fleeing the Complex, confirmed by Alice Hamilton after stating the Toppat Orbital Station launched a week prior.
 * This also aligns with Jewel Baron, coincidentally by the same report in two pathways.
 * This ending, the ending of Breaking the Bank, The Betrayed, Toppat Civil Warfare and Revenged are the only endings that end badly for Henry. Unlike most of them, Henry and the government achieved their ultimate objectives and he survives; however, the spaceship was destroyed, and Henry has to live with the fact that his best friend, Charles, died saving him.
 * This is the only PD-chosen pathway that does not feature Henry disguised as the Mysterious Vagabond in the intro. Instead, his disguise lies right beside him.
 * Although this is the case, Henry is still seen smiling deviously at some point in the intro as he did in all the other intros of the PD-chosen pathways after he takes off his mask.
 * Furthermore, this is the only GSPI and PD-chosen pathway that features the Toppat Orbital Station already launched into orbit as opposed to the other GSPI and PD-chosen pathways that take place sometime before the launch.
 * As the two enter the orbital station right after ramming the ship, Charles says "I've always wanted to do that", which refers to how he would have crashed his helicopter into the Toppat airship in GSPI if the Charles option was chosen.
 * Even after hearing about the Norwegian Emerald being stolen by the Toppat Clan, Henry is left unmotivated, possibly due to the lack of any lucrative work caused by his faked death. This would also imply that without Henry's help, the government raid failed and they built a prototype spaceship as a last resort, only missing someone capable of accomplishing their objective.
 * Since Galeforce's tent is in the same location as Special BROvert OPs, it can be presumed that the government did not withdraw even after the unsuccessful assault. opting to continue monitoring the station.
 * This is the only instance where the Charles option does not lead to a fail.
 * This and Toppat 4 Life are the only PD-branch Endings where Henry is later recognized alive by a major faction.
 * The nature of this ending parallels Chris Redfield's ending to Resident Evil 6, where his partner, Piers Nivans, sacrifices himself to save Chris from the destruction of an underwater research facility that they were infiltrating.
 * The death of Charles in VH was considered extremely emotional by many youtubers, despite him surviving in all others.
 * This is the only ending route where Charles shows his hatred against The Toppats and stated that it's getting personal.
 * The Occupied Escape Pod fail message is a reference to a quote said by Yzma in the Disney movie The Emperor's New Groove after her assistant Kronk pulls the wrong lever, as she says "Why do we even HAVE that lever?" Later in the movie Kuzco pulls the same lever and asks the same question
 * The Hot Knife option is a reference to the "1000 Degree Knife" videos uploaded by MrGear in late-December 2016.
 * The fail screen message for the Drop Off option is a reference to how passengers who ride with ride-share services, such as Uber or Lyft, can leave a review along with a 1 to a 5-star rating on their driver based on their performance while riding with them.
 * The song Charles hums when crawling through the vents is a parody of the song Crawling by Linkin Park.
 * The ending scene was named "Valliant Hero" before the typo was fixed.
 * It's unclear how Henry is actually able to hear Charles at the end of Valiant Hero, as he's neither seen with a earpiece, or his space suit, taken off after the Charles option destroys the helmet.
 * Subtitles for Charles' last words were not cut off as to prevent spoiling his death before it actually occurs.
 * The Vent option might be a reference to the eponymous environmental feature in Among Us, another InnerSloth product. Both vents allow the player to access other areas that are normally impossible to transverse much faster.
 * On the map screen, the first choice is called "Infiltrating the Orbital Station", which is almost certainly a reference to Infiltrating the Airship, as the scene is already partially a reference to the beginning of that game, where Charles flies a chopper and asks Henry to make his decision, although in this case, Charles actually enacts them, instead of Henry.
 * This is the only Presumed Dead path in CtM where Icepick doesn't appear or play any sort of role.
 * This probably is because the Toppat Station has already launched, and Icepick presumably is on there instead of at the Tavern.
 * However, he does not appear in Valiant Hero at all, nor any GSPI route. This means he could've been arrested in the Government Supported Private Investigator ending along with many Toppats, although even then this theory is questionable, as he wasn't part of the airship division.
 * In the ending screen, the headset on the headstone is in pristine condition and has a magenta finish, which implies Henry may have purchased a new one to represent his death.
 * However, the headset keeps switching between red and magenta during this path.
 * During the Trash Ball scene, the Tan Crewmate Stuffie can be found. However, clicking on it does not count towards the Assemble the Crew achievement.
 * When clicked, the crewmember looks like it will join the row of collected crewmembers but gets squeezed in the middle of the last and second last slots and it is forced out of the way by a punch of a hand. This is a reference to the development history of Among Us where Tan was a planned playable color but ultimately scrapped (although it was reintroduced in 2021).