Valiant Hero

“	Henry, you there? Man, that roughed me up. Got him though. Gotta be another escape pod around here somewhere. We did it though, we got them! It was a pretty good plan, you could say it was the greatest-	„
	― Charles Calvin's last words^[src]

Valiant Hero is one of the sixteen endings in Completing the Mission. It is considered one of the saddest endings in the entire collection.

In this ending, Henry and Charles team up to storm and destroy the established Toppat Orbital Station. However, trying to get out, Charles sacrifices himself to save Henry's life. Returning back to Earth, Henry salutes his deceased partner.

The ending is set after the "Government Supported Private Investigator" and "Presumed Dead" endings.

Plot[]

After escaping The Wall by faking his own death, Henry, presumed deceased by all factions, 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 Top pat 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 once and for all, 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 he should 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 and trash is sent everywhere, 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 damage to its reactor, but successfully knocks both of them inside.

The collision inadvertently damages the space station's reactor 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:

[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. Henry looks at him in disappointment. 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 crawl the nearby vent to escape.

As they are crawling through the vent, a distant explosion is heard, and Charles states that they are running out of time. They reach the emergency exit, where they see three available escape pods:

[X] Luxury Escape Pod: Inside the escape pod marked "LUXURY", they find six el ite Top pa ts 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 all three of them. 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.

Henry and Charles prepare for their ride back home when they are suddenly ambushed by a Toppat member named Jacked Hughman. Henry is thrown out of the escape pod, prompting Charles to tackle Hughman into the wall and help Henry get back inside the escape pod. Before Charles can make it back to the pod himself, Hughman tackles him down. The pod closes with only Henry inside and quickly makes its way back to planet Earth, leaving Charles behind at the space station. Before the pod takes off, Charles assures Henry not to panic, as he will find another way to escape.

A few moments later, Charles informs Henry via his headset that he managed to knock out Hughman and that he should be able to escape anyway, citing that he can still find another empty escape pod in the station somewhere. He remarks that their mission was a success but is abruptly cut off when the space station's reactor core is overwhelmed and explodes, killing him and the remaining members of the Toppat Clan that could not make it in time to escape. Shocked to witness the explosion, Henry screams in horror, and pounds on the pod's window, still refusing to believe that his best friend is dead, before slumping over on the window in sadness.

Henry and numerous other fleeing Toppat members eventually land on Earth. Once he arrives at the Government Military Base, he and Paul Ascott meet up with General Hubert Galeforce inside a tent. Paul informs Galeforce that the space station has been destroyed, thus speaking of the cessation of the Toppat Clan, much to the General's delight. Puzzled by the sad look on Henry's face, Galeforce quickly asks him what's wrong.

A tombstone is built on a cliff, currently being overlooked by the sunset, in Charles' honor, with a pair of red headsets placed on top of it. Henry pays a visit to Charles' tombstone and gives him a salute.

Characters[]

Italics indicate they only appear in this pathway.

Underlined indicate they only appear in fails in this ending.

Gallery[]

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 Story Begins, The Betrayed, Toppat Civil Warfare and Revenged are the only endings that end badly for Henry. Unlike most of them, Henry and the government achieve their ultimate objectives, and Henry himself survives; however, he also has to live with the fact that his best friend, Charles, passed away while trying to save 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 spaceship, Charles says "I've always wanted to do that", referring to the Charles option in GSPI where he would ram his helicopter into the airship.
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 failure.
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.
This is the only ending route where Charles shows his hatred against the Toppats and stated that it's getting personal.
The ending scene was named "Valliant Hero" before the typo was fixed.
It's unclear how Henry was able to hear Charles after the final choice screen, as he's neither seen with an earpiece, or his space suit, and Charles' headset was badly damaged after he rammed his spaceship into the orbital station.
The subtitles for Charles' last words were not cut off as to prevent spoiling his death before it actually occurs.
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 helicopter 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.
- The reason behind this is because the Toppat Orbital Station had already launched into space and Icepick was most likely aboard.
  - However, it is unknown if Icepick truly managed to get inside of the rocket in time during the raid as he could've been one of the many Toppats who were either arrested or killed.
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).
This ending, Triple Threat and Special BROvert Ops are the only GSPI-chosen pathways in which Henry helps the Government stop the Toppat Clan.

Errors[]

When Charles says "I'm gonna stick back here though so they don't detect me.", the subtitles for Charles say "I'm gonna stick here though so they don't detect me."

Music[]

Track	Composer/Artist	Notes
🎧 "An Old Friend"	PuffballsUnited	Opening theme.
🎧 "Valiant Hero"	Ockeroid	Ending theme.

Ranks/Endings

The Story Begins

Sneaky Escapist • Lawyered Up • Badass Bust Out

Intruder on a Scooter • Just Plain Epic • Unseen Burglar

Government Supported Private Investigator • Pure Blooded Thief • Relentless Bounty Hunter • Rapidly Promoted Executive

Ghost Inmate • Convict Allies • Presumed Dead • International Rescue Operative • The Betrayed

Toppat King • Cleaned 'em Out • Stickmin Space Resort • Little Nest Egg • Special BROvert Ops • Master Bounty Hunter • Jewel Baron • Valiant Hero • Free Man • Revenged • Toppat Civil Warfare • Pardoned Pals • Toppat Recruits • Capital Gains • Toppat 4 Life • Triple Threat Secret: Multiverse Correction