War came to them quicker than they could get to the war. At least that was how it seemed to Yong. Just three days ago he had taken command of his regiment, the 37th of the Persephone 3rd Airborne Infantry Division. He was only beginning to establish a basic working relationship with his fellow officers, both above and beneath him, and getting a feel of what kind of troop material he had to deal. The Independents didn’t give them more than three days. Just hours ago word had got out from their deep space recon patrols that a massive Independent fleet had surprised the Alliance and broken through. Now it was on direct course to Osiris. At that note Capital City had erupted into frantic activity.

Countless boats were in the air, rushing the upper five per cent of the population to hideouts in the mountains, or moving troops into combat positions. From the troop carrier that shuttled Yong and his troops off to their designated spot, he could see the panic that had gripped the city. Hundreds, maybe thousands hurried into the air shelters, some public, more of them private, but all protected by an assignemnt of Feds who kept the masses at bay and just let those with the right Ident cards into the bunkers. Throngs of people were squeezing into the underground stations, which already seemed to be overflowing. As far as Yong could tell from so far above, people were fighting for the scarce places down in the innards of Capital City.

When Yong and his 37th, and actually most of the 3rd, had been deployed at several miles distance from the outskirts of the sprawling city, on a group of low thickly wooded hills. Several anti-aircraft batteries were placed on the ridge. His men were manning several heavy machine-guns which could also shoot anti-air ammo. The sun was already setting and darkness was slowly creeping up the hillsides. Yong looked back to the city. Usually the city was brightly illuminated, but now everything was black, so the Independents would not see their targets. The activity in the air above it and