AN: Hello, and welcome to chapter 24 of Earth Soldiers Of Remnant, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 24: Barrel Roll

"Swinging left!" Dexter yelled as he swung the Hornet to his left, making it do a 180 degree turn. In the last few minutes, they had been pushing their Hornet to its max potential as they fought to stay alive against the 15 other Remnant fighters. "Sam, Lock onto that one in front!"

"I can't, it's dived!" Sam reported back as sent a small burst of fire by one of the enemy fighters. As they flew through the air Sam looked to see Hornet 5-5, which still had black smoke trailing behind it, diving and rolling at the same time. She also noticed Hornet 5-6 at the edge of her vision doing a hard right to try and evade a burst of bullets. "We can't beat this many fighters."

"I know, but I need you to help me survive right now." Dexter stated as he spun the Hornet upside down and then dived towards the sea below. "How many can you see behind us?"

"I can see at least 3, but I think there are 5." Sam answered as they both lurched forward in their seats, the plane shaking. "We're trailing smoke!" there fighter plane had a trail of light grey smoke following them. "We can't take this much fire power against us!" Suddenly, a unexpected voice came over the radio.

"This is Warmonger 4-5, does anyone copy?" A voice asked, Sam quickly pressing the radio button on her console.

"This is Hornet 6-7 to Warmonger 4-5, we need fleet support ASAP!" Sam almost yelled down the radio microphone. "My patrol is in heavy combat with enemy fighters, two of us are trailing smoke."

"Copy Hornet 6-7, Central is advising." Warmonger 4-5 said as Sam's fighter went straight upwards towards the sky. "Hornet 6-7, we have confirmation that the HMS Calvary is on route to provide flak assistance. Orders are to make your way back towards the Calvary and the fleet."

"Copy, we will attempt to head there but we can't make any promises." Sam reported as her fighter spun.

"Copy." And with that, Sam's focus went back to the fighting outside her cockpit.

"Alright, All Hornets, form up on me. We are leaving, full throttle." Dexter said over the squadron radio, as he maneuverer out of the way of an on-coming fighter.

"We can't form up on you out here; we'll get down before we can even line up behind you!" Hornet 6-6's pilot yelled as Dexter watched them fly across their nose, another 3 enemy fighters following behind it.

"If you can't, then high tail it out of towards the fleet, just make sure to head towards the fleet."

"I don't think we'll make it." A male pilot said worriedly over the radio, the pilot of Hornet 6-5.

"Just go, if you can't make it try to find a place to land." Dexter said as he watched Hornet 6-6 turning right, their flares being popped as a pair of missiles followed after. After a loud boom and the dark black smoke that filled the air where the first missile hit the second missile, which they had thought had exploded, flew through the air and towards Hornet 6-6. "6-6, you still got one on you!" Dexter screamed out his warning as the missile got closer and closer.

"What...?" The pilot of 6-6 asked just before the missile hit its rear engine and the plane blew into a giant fireball, the audible screams of the female pilot's last breath echoed through the radio channel.

"6-6!" Sam screamed in horror as she watched the plane fall towards the Grimm infested ocean floor. She could feel tears reaching the edges of her eyes. "You Bastards, I'll kill you!" She roared in pure anger.

"Sam! Calm down or will end up exactly like them." Dexter ordered as he rolled the plane onto its side, showing the cockpit to the right. Sam looked up to see an enemy fighter heading towards them and time seemed to slow, she felt her life flash before her eyes as she just stared out at the fighter itself.

Suddenly, it exploded into flaming wrecked pieces that plunged towards the ground, and a Hornet flew from above them and straight down while time seemed to resume. "This is Warmonger 4-5; I and my squadron have got your back." She heard a voice say over the radio.

"Great, now it's 5 against 14." Dexter Joked. "Now it's 1 of us against 3 of them."

"Your maths is wrong; I think it's 5 against 50." Hornet 6-5 said with a hint of fear in his voice as Sam and Dexter saw a large wave of bombers and fighters heading towards them. "I think we had just found the scouts."

"…Shit!" Dexter yelled as he hit his head against his headrest in frustration. "Ok, keep heading towards the fleet."

Admiral Stevenson stood atop his ships bridge, getting reports from around the fleet about preparing to launch their fighters. Suddenly, one of his ensigns shouted something that caught his attention. "Sir, Warmonger 4-5 reports and confirms that the fighters engaged against Hornet 6-7 and its squadron were scouts, they have spotted a large wave of fighters and bombers heading towards the fleet."

"Ok, push us to Condition One around the fleet and recall the HMS Calvary, we'll need her back-up on this one. Launch all Hornets in the air and tell them to prepare to engage hostiles." The Admiral ordered before the ensign continued.

"Sir, they also report that Hornet 6-6 is down, both pilots K.I.A." He said which caused everyone to go quite, it was always hard losing a crew member, even the pilots.

After a long pause, the Admiral spoke. "Ok, let's teach these Ass hats why they shouldn't mess with the UN fleet." And with that everyone roared in agreement and went back to their duties with renewed vigour.

"Michael, gun that guy down!" Mark Nutt, pilot of Warmonger 4-5 ordered quickly as he swung the plane down close to the sea, chasing another enemy fighter. After a volley of bullets, the enemy fighter exploded into flames before crashing into the sea.

"Boom, that's one down!" Michael, the co-pilot of Warmonger 4-5, yelled in victory as he cheered.

"Don't get cocky back there, Michael. We still got almost 50 to kill." Mark smiled as he pulled up. "Bloody hell, we're close to the fleet." He pointed out as they noticed the fleet on the horizon.

"Yeah, better full throttle it." Michael stated as they rose back into the heated battle between the 5 Hornets and the fighters and bombers of the White Fang. "All everyone, try to full throttle it towards the fleet, we could make it their within two minutes if we blast it." He said over the radio.

"This is Hornet 6-7, me and 6-5 are running low on fuel and ammunition, and all the while trailing smoke." He heard over the radio.

"Copy, me and my squadron have got your back, you just high-tail it out of here." Michael said as he and the others began to dive towards the fleet at full speed, the other enemy fighters following behind. Suddenly, as they breached the cloud layer they were hidden under, they saw the fleet's entire forces of Hornets flying towards them. "Dive!" He yelled down the radio as the two squadrons dived towards the sea, Michael looked back to watch the enemy pilots get pelted by streams of bullets flying towards them as they breached the cloud cover themselves. As they levelled out close to the ground they heard a new voice on their radio channel.

"Warmonger squadron, this is central, you are to head back up and assist your fellow pilots in this engagement, while Hornet squadron will land for repairs, refuelling and rearming."

"Copy central. Alright, you heard central, up and back into the fight, let's go." And with that, they rose back into the air and back into the fighting.

Yang sat staring blankly out of one of the windows in Professor Ports classroom, bored out of her mind like she normally was in his class. Her thoughts drifted slowly away from what she was thinking of (Which, quite surprisingly, was how cute Ruby and Weiss would be) to how much of her life had changed since the Derik and his squad arrived. She thought about how, since they had arrived, that her father had almost been killed, Vale had been attacked, she had been shot, and she had met Derik, a beautiful, handsome- "Wait, what?" She jolted herself out of the thought and quickly looking around herself to see if anyone had heard or noticed her, but no one was paying attention, before going back to her thoughts. 'Why did I think of him like that?' She wondered as she looked down towards her class notes to find that she had subconsciously been writing Derik's name repeatedly onto her paper. She blushed heavily and quickly hid it under book. 'Why do I keep thinking about him, I only met him a few months ago, and now I'm writing his name on my book in the middle of class? God, what have I got myself into.' She shook her head after thought as the bell rang to signal the end of class. She sighed in relief knowing that they now had combat class, an easy way for her to stop thinking about Derik.

When she and her other teammates arrived they found all the students already watching something inside the arena. They walked down to the barrier that separated them from jumping down into the arena to see a squad of the Allied soldiers having a 4v4 firefight, but it wasn't just any squad, it was Derik's squad. They had large boxes that were normally used to hold the combat drones that they fought against in training around the arena to act as cover. Her eyes quickly came across Derik blind-firing his rifle over the top of his box, causing him to quickly run of out ammo. She saw him look up at her and their eyes caught each other for a second. Time seemed to slow to a halt and everything except them two faded into black as they stared into the others eyes. Yang could feel herself grow hot and flustered as they stared along with a blush as red as Ruby's cape. An audible cough returned both of them to come back to reality and to look away as Derik turned to see his sergeant, Keith, standing on the other side of the box looking down on him, his gun pointed directly at his chest. As Derik went to turn he was found himself struck by the full forces of Keith unloading an entire mag of the weapons ammunition into him. As he fell back onto the floor, Yang had a moment of pure dread, thinking that they had actually shot him. But when Derik groaned in pain she realized that where the ammunition hit, large splotches of paint now sat. 'Paintball guns…'she thought as she watched Keith vault over the box and help Derik to his feet. They talked with each other for a few seconds before looking up at all the students watching them, Yang now realizing that Professor Goodwitch was also present and tapping her foot patiently. "Sorry, we didn't see you all there. We'll clean this all up and go." Keith yelled up as he rubbed the back of his forehead and attempting to not make contact with Goodwitch's gaze.

"No, that is alright. Our students can use those to test their improvisation in combat situations." Goodwitch answered as the group quickly made their way out of the arena.

"Yang, why are you blushing?" Yang spun around to find her teammates staring at her, Ruby with confusion written on her face, Weiss's eyes held curiosity while Blake had a very smug look on her face, almost like she knew why she was blushing. Yang just felt herself blush even redder.

"Hey Derik, what happened during that firefight?" Keith asked Derik as the pair walked back to their room; both of them were covered in paint.

"What do you mean sir?" Derik asked as he looked away from his superior officer.

"What did you get so concentrated on that you forgot to watch your enemy, you know that can get you killed?"

"I know sir and it was nothing, just a one-time thing."

There was a pause between the two of them as they walked a few feet before Keith answered. "I know you have a thing for Yang." Derik stopped in his tracks and stared at his CO with his mouth gaped open in shock. "I noticed it the first time you saw her, you had this glint in your eye that said that you had a thing for her. And don't you tell me it's just a thing because what you did in that arena proved it. You and her were staring at each other for a few good seconds. Has anyone else from the squad talked to you about this?"

Derik was quiet for a few seconds before stopping and leaning against the closest wall. "Daniel talked to me about it a few hours ago, told me to make my move or someone will get her first." Derik looked up at his CO who, to his surprise, was smiling at him.

"I thought he would talk to you about that." Keith looked away from Derik and down the corridor. "He was always good at hooking people up, but has yet to realize who's trying to hook up with him." Keith turned back around to see Derik with a raised eyebrow.

"Who's trying to hook up with Daniel?"

"Now that would be telling." Keith smiled before starting to stroll down the corridor. "You should take his advice though." He called down back down the corridor. "She's a good girl for you Derik, and it's hard to find good people who would love you in our line of work." Derik looked towards his CO's back with confusion. He could have sworn he heard sadness in Keith's voice.

"Ow!" Yang exclaimed in pain as she was pushed into a wall, Blake holding both her shoulders and an evil look in her eye. Yang raised an eyebrow at her partner as a smile crept up Blake's face. "What?"

"So, you and Derik then, huh?" Blake smiled as Yang flushed. She had known ever since the pair had met that Yang and Derik had chemistry but, from the look she had during combat class, it only proved her thought. "So, am I going to be your kids godmother or is Ruby?"

Yang's imagination quickly took over and she thought about having a daughter's with her hair but with Derik's eyes. She quickly shook the thought off and pushed Blake's arms off her. "What are you talking about?" Blake just shook her head and pointed towards her down cat ears.

"I'm a Faunus, we have heightened senses, of course I would see the looks you give him so much."

"Well, thank you for making assumptions but your completely wrong." Yang stated before walking away, Blake calling to her back.

"I'm right, and you know it!" Blake yelled to her back and Yang thought she was crazy.

But deep down she knew Blake was right…

AN: So, what did you guys think? A massive battle in the sky at the beginning and my terrible attempt at romance (Or the start of it). All criticism is acceptable and I want to ask you guys a question. Would you guys like, in the next AN, for me to put a list of every character within this story and what they were doing within the story, and if so would you want me to update it after a certain amount of chapters ( 5 chapters or 10). Well, thats me done. Have a good time,

Rookie117