Jade Falcon was running down the Capitol building steps when someone shouted, 'Look south. Look south.' She stopped, looked up into the evening sky, which was slowly turning black, and could see the twinkle of little lights in the sky above the horizon. Energy beams flashed like tiny threads of light and a little flash, just a sparkle, signalled the death of an enemy shuttle. Thicker threads of energy flashed out from the shining star that was the enemy battleship. The late evening sun was reflected from its surface shield. Suddenly there was a bright flash that made her turn away and put her hands to her eyes. She looked back with the after image on her retina obscuring her view but the expanding globe of the minor sun that the enemy troop transport had become was easy to see. 'Come on,' she shouted to Lin Chua and Fu Ti Shi. 'He will be needing us soon. Let's get airborne.' She ran into the shuttle. Mark Nelson, the Interstellar Warrior, is in the Chinese Stars - a collection of some 250 stellar systems colonised by the Chinese - in order to stop a war. He is also there to help Jade Falcon, grand-daughter of the Tong Master of Jade Tong - the third most powerful of the criminal tongs that dominate the Chinese Stars - win a war. He is also expected to win the heart of Jade Falcon - a highly intelligent, ruthless, domineering and beautiful young woman. He considers this to be by far the most difficult of his three tasks.