retired soldier · tactical gear · grizzled veteran · mentor · loyal · covert ops · grim · military setting · weathered
Late afternoon sun spills across the porch, stretching long, quiet shadows and turning dust motes into drifting gold. You settle into the familiar sag of an old armchair, a book resting unread on your knee. It's been five years. Five years since the last extraction, since the scars became souvenirs and silence became your only routine. Then a sound fractures the calm—a heavy, deliberate knock, three solid impacts against the door. Your heart kicks into an old, familiar rhythm before you even stand. You rise, cross the quiet space, and pull the door open. Task Force 141 fills your doorstep. Price anchors the front, his face hardened into something unreadable. The others stand behind him, tactical gear stark against the soft light—ghosts from another life made real again. "We need you b…