Respawn available in three... Two... One...
"Objective: Capture Loy Marana"
Raptor blinked and looked about confusedly before switching his radio's frequency to that which his squad used.
"Guys," He spoke. "What exactly just happened?"
Roar respawned just seconds later in the same medical tent and walked over to Raptor laughing.
"Bro it was sick, we rammed that T-90 and everything just exploded."
"Oh my god. Did you have to do it while I was inside?"
"Uhm... Yeah?" Roar said with a sheepish smile.
"Fine," Raptor responding, rubbing his temples. "Hey, Splash, where'd you go?"
There was moment of silence before their gunner's voice came on over the radio. "I jumped-Aah!-... I jumped out when I realized what Roar was doing, I can't feel my legs!"
The two freshly-spawned squad member began laughing.
"It's not funny! I'm suffering out here!" The other whined.
"You could just respawn." Roar suggested after getting a hold of himself.
A sigh was heard over the radio. "Alright, i'm using these satchel charges."
"Alright," Raptor started. "Let's go get our new Stryker."
They exited the tent slowly, walking along the road to the west side of the airfield. Both crew member held their weapons loosely in their lowered arms, making idle conversation and greeting fellow vehicle operators. The environment was hot, sandy, and there was no breeze to be felt. Not that it bothered them, didn't really seem to bother anyone, in fact.
The two approached their brand-new Stryker MGS, Roar pulled the driver's hatch open while Raptor went in through the back. As the engine started up, Roar's hatch was left open. He pulled the tank out from the spawn points and drove back towards the medical tent, approaching slowly and pulling up just outside one of the exits.
Just as the driver cut the engine, a large explosion was heard, coming from the nearby town, which just so happened to be their current objective. Their heads snapped at attention to the Northeast and watched as a large cloud of black smoke rose up from the area of operations.
"Loy Manara captured."
Several units from a mix of squads respawned about five seconds later, among them was Echo 1-3, Splash. His crew members stared as he swaggered back to the tank and into the gunner's seat.
Raptor turned around in his seat. "How many satchels did you have?"
"I dunno." Splash said with a shrug. "I just took the Coyote pack and filled it with them."
...
The chopper kicked up dust all around the MGS and a waiting infantry squad, who really couldn't care less, it seemed. The sun was in the middle of the sky and the temperature had probably peaked for the day.
"I've been order not to give you guys a lift to the AO." The helicopter pilot spoke over the radio.
"What, why?!" Splash shouted impatiently.
"After that stunt you guys pulled with the T-90 and the satchel charges, i'm not surprised."
"What are we supposed to do then?" Raptor said. "The AO is on the other side of the map!"
"Oh I don't know, be useful, do something right? Defend the airstrip while we're gone."
"I'll take these satchel charges and shove them straight up your-..." Splash came in but stopped after he realized the pilot had picked up the waiting squad and left, going out of range of their direct comms.
Roar sighed and cut the engine. "Now what?"
Splash answered. "I'm a little tempted to put an HESH round in the air traffic control tower and just leave, those pricks."
The three crew members remained silent for some time after that. Roar eventually looked out the hatch and saw the sun making it's way below the horizon and grumbled something incomprehensible before closing the hatch and leaning against the side of the cabin, asleep within minutes. Splash had long-since pulled out his smartphone and began reading fan-fiction, while Raptor was just sitting there, leaned back with a bored look on his face.
"This is ridiculous." Splash said quietly. "Stuck at the airfield just because we like to enjoy what we do."
"Totally worth it, I mean, did you see that explosion?" Raptor responded.
"No, actually. I kinda got decimated." Splash replied with a chuckle.
Raptor suddenly leaned forward. "I see a red triangle on the radar."
The warning caused Splash to look up quickly, like a twitch. "Enemy air contacts, North west."
A Russian helicopter came into view, it was a Mi-24 "Hind" gunship, and it was coming straight at them, with rockets. Splash swung the cannon around towards the helicopter, zeroing in at three hundred meters before waiting for a few seconds.
"Firing." He said.
A muffled boom was heard and the tank shook, bringing Roar to a state of half-consciousness. The hind pulled up in an attempt to evade, but was too close, the gunship was hit by an HESH round in the lower belly. The impact and explosion caused it to tilt back forwards, and the rotor began pulling the crippled helicopter towards the MGS.
"What happened?" Raptor called. "That helicopter should have exploded mid-air!"
Splash checked his console. "Uh... I forgot to switch to AP..."
"Roar!" Raptor screamed. "Reverse! Get us out of here!"
The sleeping driver lifted his head and mumbled incoherently before seeing the Hind coming at them.
"Oh fuck!" He shouted, now fully awake, shifting the machine into reverse and stomping on the gas pedal.
ROAR IS UNCONSCIOUS
SPLASH IS UNCONSCIOUS
RAPTOR IS UNCONSCIOUS
There was a flash on the airfield follow by a deep explosion, fire erupted next to the main runway as fuselage ignited from both machines. The crew of the MGS lay nearby, writhing in pain.
"Guys, we can't really respawn... Some kids came and crashed helicopters on the med tent earlier." Raptor managed.
Four minutes passed, no one came to help the dying squad. When blackness consumed their vision, they knew they were going to be incapable of being revived. After a few seconds of silence and stalling, the three reluctantly selected "Respawn", preparing to be stuck within burning wreckage before dying and just having to repeat the process.
...
"You will not!" Celestia threatened before going airborne, charging her horn.
She fired without hesitation, not caring that the blast was lethal. The changeling queen resisted with a beam of her own sickly green magic. The two energies clashed together, to Celestia's surprise, Chrysalis' magic gained ground, the princess made a final push, but was overcome. Celestia stopped channeling and evaded the green magic.
Thinking fast, the princess launched a random spell at the changeling queen, but her enemy reacted quickly and deflected it, the ball of energy going through the window at an extreme velocity.
The spell eventually triggered just outside of Ponyville, anypony who had been watching would've seen a large metal structure fall a few yards out of the sky.
