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Within a week, General Grayson and his staff had revised their operational plan to attack The Kingdom. Former Governor Bonds' recital about Operation Quicksilver in the Second World War got the General, Kara and many others thinking about how to emulate that. Kara spent most of the time on the surface with Grayson, the two CAGS and other Generals like Otter and Trevor to map out their attack.

When they informed Lee and Governor Kwok that they had a revised plan, the Governor summoned them to her quarters on the William Adama.

The Governor called the meeting to order and turned it over to General Grayson. "Thank you, Madam Governor. As the brief that is in front of you mentions, we got a serious surprise on the northern approaches of the mountain range. They hit us a lot harder than we thought they could, and I take full responsibility for that, sirs." No one was going to give Grayson any grief over this. They had all signed off on it.

"As you can see, in our revised battle plan, and thanks in large part to a history lesson from Governor Bond, we think we have the makings of something that will be more successful." That remark made Kara smile. Governor Kwok caught it and winked at her, making Kara blush a little.

"What we want to do is make a whole helluva lot of noise on the westernmost approaches, which is more strongly fortified. We are planning on making large-scale demonstrations, in that area. It isn't that we won't fight, and we do want to take some real estate, but we simply want to make it look as if our resources are to the west. The real show will be in the south.

"As you know, the southern approaches are a lot further away from their main encampment-some seventeen miles away, while the northern end is only about twelve miles away, so yes, it's a longer slug across to their main enclave. Sometimes the longest route is the best route."

He laid out the details of the plan to them: about sixty-percent of the available forces, not counting reserves, would make the demonstrations: charges up the hill, heavy Raptor and Falcon fire above. They still wanted to hurt them in the northwest. The other forty percent would go in only after the demonstration was well underway. A rapid deployment force consisting of Raptors, Smaller personnel spacecraft and larger cargo ships would fly into the break in the forest where so much had taken place two years earlier. It was to be a rapid roll-out of forces that would land, meet up with their supplies, and head north. One of the weapons they would use was a small artillery piece euphemistically called The Musket. Its ordinance was nicknamed "Buckshot": a shell that would open and spray smaller cylinder explosives up to a forty-five-degree angle to the front. They could rip through the trees, let along human flesh. It was a brutal, barbaric weapon.

"Operation Patton, the northwestern feint, will start at 0200 local." There were approximately twenty-nine hours in a Caprican day, so the math wasn't hard to do. "We don't plan to launch the actual attack, Operation Ikeuntil four hours later at 0600."

The Governor raised her hand at that time. "General, explain for me the amount of time between the start of Patton and the start of Ike?"

"Governor, we're hoping that the absence of any activity to the south-not even ground pickets on our part will draw the majority of their armed combatants north. From what Admiral Adama and Admiral Tyrol have both told me", and he nodded to both, who were present at the meeting, "this guy running the show may be a nut, but he isn't stupid. He'll make sure some forces are still there when we arrive. But we hope that they'll be thinned out by that time so we can advance. Our goal is for Ike to advance at least four miles on the first day."

After going over some more details, the Governor brought the meeting back to her. "Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you so much for all your hard work on this. And, please, give my regards to your troops. The mission is approved."

She paused for a moment then continued. "General, I understand you wanting to take responsibility for everything, but I want all of you to remember that the buck stops with me. An old saying, but one I believe in. In the end, it is my responsibility, and I am the one will have to explain things to the Quorum and the people of this fleet."

Kara had to admit that she had woefully underestimated the diminutive woman from San Francisco. Her father had been right: she was tough as nails, a quick learner, knew what she didn't know, and let everyone know that she was the Commander-In-Chief. Kara felt embarrassed at how she had first treated and talked about Ingrid Kwok, and her father had rightly called her ass on the floor for it.

A silence had fallen over the gathered for a few moments. Kara broke it. "Madam Governor, I think I can speak for all of us here in saying we won't let you down."

Ingrid Kwok smiled, "Of that, I have no doubt, Admiral Thrace-Bond. In fact, would you do me the honor of briefing your father about this meeting?"

Kara gave her a broad, genuine smile. "With pleasure, Madam Governor."

"OK, then", the Governor said, rising and her subordinates following. "This meeting is adjourned. Godspeed and good hunting everyone." Without exception, everyone in uniform snapped off their finest salutes.

Starbuck flew immediately back to the Laura Roslin. Despite the tension knowing that the battle would soon resume, Kara felt better about things than she had in a long while. She now had full confidence in Governor Kwok, realizing the woman had many of the same strengths of character that her father had. She felt the battle plan that she had a part in devising would work, at least in getting them a foothold in the mountains. Lastly, her mother had talked to her the day before, informing her that her father was slowly improving.

When she knocked on his door, she didn't do so with the trepidation that had coursed through her the first time she came here after Lee had removed her father from office. She was still very concerned about her father's health and his future, but she knew now that while he may never be Governor again, he was on his way to being healthy enough to live productively.

The door opened, and Kara looked at her dad with a terrific smile. "Hey, dad!"

"Kara!" He pulled her into a warm embrace, as he usually did, then kissed her on the cheek. "How's my favorite Admiral these days?"

They stepped into his quarters. "Lee won't be happy hearing that", she chided him, which made him chuckle, "but he came to terms with that reality a long time ago."

"C'mon, honey and sit on the couch with your old man?" Kara grasped his hand and walked the seven or so steps to the couch that he had in mind. "Official visit, or just personal?"

"A little of both", Kara admitted. "I think you know there was the council of war with Governor Kwok today?" He nodded his assent. "So yeah, I want to give you the rundown of the meeting, but I've got nothing going on that can't wait for an hour or two, so I thought I'd visit my father."

"I like the sound of that", he said with a grin. "It's lunchtime, want me to order up some food for us? We haven't had a meal together in a long time."

"Sure!", she said happily. "You know what I like, so I'll leave the ordering to you."

Within minutes he had called for a light lunch for two. It usually took about twenty minutes for it to arrive. That gave them time to talk about the op plan that Governor Kwok had just green-lighted. She had the binder that laid out the op plan, complete with maps and order of battle.

"I didn't know we'd make a whole battle plan out of my idea", Justin Bond snorted, "but looking at this, I think it's a solid plan, honey."

"We think so to, dad", she agreed. "We got our butts handed to us the first time. We underestimated these assholes-pardon my language, dad-but we did. Not this time."

"Nothing to pardon, Kara, because I think they're assholes, too." They both chuckled. He also knew his daughter far too well. "You gonna ask Lee if you can fly some missions?"

She used to look dumbfounded at him for seeing right through her, but it had happened so often, she just smiled when he did it again. "Can't keep anything hidden from you, old man", she teased him. "I'm thinking about it. I'm too old to drive a Falcon any longer, but I can still handle a Raptor as well as anyone. I know", she said wryly, "mom'll go nuts if I do take a mission, but God dad, I really don't like having to sit back and watch others fight under a plan I helped to plan."

"You're what we have always called 'a soldier's soldier', Starbuck: you want to take the same risks as your people, and that is admirable. But there comes a time when we have to let the others do the heavy lifting. And only you can come to that decision, my dear."

She nodded. "Just like you did when Lee told you that you had repeated something?"

He gave her a small smile. "Something like that. I was being stubborn and selfish, and, to be honest, didn't think any of it was a big deal, honey", he confessed to her. "Then when Lee told me that I repeated something I had said five minutes earlier...I knew I needed to step aside and let others do the heavy lifting."

Kara's heart still ached to hear her father say that, but she was understanding it more and more. "As upset as I was-as I still am, dad, at what is happening with you-I know Lee made the right decision. And I have to tell you I'm more and more impressed with Governor Kwok every day. She is a tough, no-nonsense Governor; she isn't afraid to ask questions when she doesn't know something, and she stands by her people."

"Gee, sounds kind of familiar?", he said with an impish wink at his adopted child.

"Yeah, yeah", she playfully responded, "you told me she'd make a good Governor. I just needed to see it for myself. In fact", she said with stark honesty, "I'll follow her to hell and back to win this conflict."

Justin Bond shook his head in wonder. "Will miracles never cease?" Then he became more somber. "She needs you and Lee and Ken and everyone else to back her a thousand percent, Kara. I can tell you from far too many bitter experiences, it's lonely at the top when all of it and I mean all of it is on your shoulders at the end of the day."

She studied her dad for a moment. "I can remember in '27 when we had just found out the Cylons were in the Solar System, and that first day we had been up from before sunrise till after midnight. Remember you woke me up in my office?"

"Yeah", her father said, thinking back, "I do remember that. You almost fell out of your chair, if I recall?"

"You would remember that", she said with a snort. "I remember you telling me to go up to get some sleep in one of the guest rooms. When you were walking away...I wondered how you were even able to stand up without your legs giving out, knowing the weight of the whole world was literally on your shoulders. I was in awe of that."

He shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "All of that didn't hit me till after the war was over when you, your mom and I were in Lee's quarters after Bill Adama's memorial." He looked at her with a frank, open expression. "I had trouble sleeping for weeks after that. It was so overwhelming."

"I know you did, dad", she responded, thinking back to those first days after the war, "but you got us through the war; you helped get the world back on its feet and rebuilding; and you were the vision of this fleet we now have growing back at home-and the vision to realize the debt of honor we owe to the survivors here on the Twelve Colonies."

He chuckled at her words. "I'll let the historians sort all that out, but I think I've given them a lot to write about for the next, oh, hundred years or so, don't you?"

Kara simply smiled brightly at him, leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "I think history will be very kind to you, Justin Bond", she said proudly. "A woman could not have been blessed with a better father."

The former Governor almost cried hearing those words but held it back. "I don't get to tell you enough, Kara, how much I love you, and how much you mean to me-how much you'll always mean to me? You'll always be my star child."

Kara had never heard him say it like that, and it caught her breath. She hugged him tightly, almost not wanting to ever let go. "I love you so much, dad. Finding you, mom, Abby, and Nick saved me. You'll always be my hero."

It was at that moment the food decided to arrive. Father and daughter settled in to eat and regale each other with stories from their past, and to just enjoy their special relationship. For a time, they were simply father and daughter, and wouldn't have it any other way.

Two Days Later, 0155 Local

General Grayson waited anxiously. Everything was out of his hands now. This was the most difficult part for a Commander-letting your troops do the work. He had talked a number of times with Admiral Thrace-Bond about the first time she had run an Op Plan many years earlier and how she was just chomping at the bit to get into the fight. Grayson felt the same way.

So he waited. His watch was what this new battle would be run by, and his watch said two minutes, thirty-seven seconds till H-hour. At that point, there would be an extended bombardment on the approaches from modern artillery that was back in Caprica City, and from Raptors coming in from above. By 0330, the "invasion" up the western slope would begin, yet only going a certain distance. The western side of the Caprican Mountain Range was the highest, at some ten thousand feet at Granite Peak. It sloped down to around seven thousand feet to the southern approach at Fromm Peak, where the actual assault would form in roughly four hours.

He looked at his watch again... thirty-two seconds to go. It would feel like an eternity, he knew, but that was just an illusion. He hoped the reality that was about to hit this "Kingdom" would not be pleasant.

He watched the last ten seconds on his watch tick down, as if in slow motion. When it reached exactly 0200, he pressed the mic to talk to all his troops.

"Fire at will."