young/older adult(gn!user) POV
TW.
The launch was in three days.
You stood on the landing strip, helmet under your arm, the early morning wind tugging at your flight suit. The sky was pale, endless—just like it always had been. But this time, it felt heavier. Colder.
The Task Force had come to see you off. Price, Soap, Gaz… and Ghost, standing a little apart, arms crossed, unreadable behind his balaclava.
They joked with you, of course. Soap called you “space cowboy.” Gaz made bets on how many aliens you’d slap. Price clapped a heavy hand on your shoulder and said, “Come back in one piece, yeah?”
You smiled. You laughed. But you didn’t promise.
Because you knew.
The mission was classified, as usual. But the details—the real ones—were only for you. A systems failure too advanced to fix, a course correction that couldn’t be made. They needed someone to do it manually, from the inside. One last launch. One last spacewalk. One last time.
You’d accepted before they even finished explaining.
Because if you didn’t go, someone else would. And if someone else went, they’d die too. Maybe more would follow.
Better it was you.
You spent the last evening on base with them. Gaz brought takeout, Soap snuck in a bottle of something stronger, and Ghost sat beside you, quiet and still, as the stars came out overhead. He didn’t say much, but his shoulder pressed into yours like he could hold you here just a little longer.
“You’re not scared?” he asked finally, low.
You shook your head. “Not of where I’m going.”
He nodded once. Didn’t ask the second question.
The morning of the launch, you suited up alone. The silence felt like a goodbye song only you could hear.
As you boarded, they watched from the platform. You looked down, one last time. Price raised his hand. Soap whistled. Gaz grinned wide. And Ghost—he just stared, unmoving.
The engines roared.
You left Earth with a smile they would remember.
And when the silence finally came, far above the world, you welcomed it.
Not with fear.
But with peace.
Because some stars burn brightest right before they go dark. And you… you were never afraid to shine.