Deity Briefing

Posted on Mon Sep 17th, 2018 @ 9:54pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy & Ahreva Malana & Baroness 2nd Class Schwein von Alcott & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Delilah Dauntless & Lieutenant Seregon French & Lieutenant Vaemyn & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Lieutenant Samuel Clemens XV & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Lieutenant Asa Dael & Ensign Avendar Jurot
Edited on on Sat Sep 29th, 2018 @ 1:01am

Mission: Hera v Hera
Location: Deck 1 Conference Room
Timeline: 2395

Enalia disliked staff meetings. She disliked mission briefings almost as much. This one was looking to be almost as bad as most of the others she'd had to put up with. Compiling all the info she'd just gotten from Intel Command, she sighed and held her head in her hand as she copied it all to a PaDD. She'd had everyone she could think of needing on this mission called to the conference room some time ago so they'd better already be there. She just hoped none of them wanted to take an escape pod home after what she was about to show them.

Grabbing her secure PaDD, she headed out of her ready room and headed straight for the conference room, waving off the bridge ensign that tried to call the bridge to attention as she passed through. She neither liked nor had time for that formality.

Entering, she stood at the head of the conference table and plugged her secure PaDD into the slot at her seat before looking around the room. "Ladies and gentlebeings... Thank you all for waiting. It's worse than we thought. We're up against a very vindictive Hera and she's as pissed off as..." Enalia just sighed and sat down. "I'll just play the bodycam feed."

Unlocking the tablet feed, the spotted captain started a holo-vid that all could easily see of the inside of a stone temple with several Starfleet diplomats with an honor guard of two of those helmeted riot police they use in the Federation Council being mauled and torn apart by a minotaur while a laughing Hera sat there. Several Amazonian women flanked her but they seemed to be more for show as the beast was more than a match for the two phaser wielding honor guards. Once they had been dismembered and three of the four diplomats had been gored and dismembered, Enalia finally enabled the audio and you could hear the last one pleading for Hera to at least tell them what she wanted.

"I want all of his progeny to die." Was her response.

Then she waved to one of her marble statues. It turned towards the last diplomat and a piercing beam of energy shot from its eyes and turned him to stone.

Enalia cut off the video at that point and took a moment to collect herself before informing the crew of their mission. "Our mission is to disable her power source, disable her army's infrastructure, and get her to surrender by any means necessary."

"So where are we going and what do we know, ma'am?" Paris asked plainly.

Enalia nodded. That was what she had come to expect from her first officer. "Meroset 347. The natives are supposedly the direct descendants of Zeus himself so we suspect Hera is using them as labor to fuel her war machine. We'll be up against minotaurs, amazons, harpies, natives, apparently those statues are dangerous as well... Hera herself... And space chariots, which are a form of shuttle. They have the hallmarks of the master smith Vulcan, but we've seen no sign that he's made them. They've attacked several worlds, including Human and Trill colonies. There are also reports of attacks on Pomtol, Cervan, Romulus... overall, about forty different races have been attacked. We suspect they're all related to her anger management issues that you were all just witness to."

French took a moment and decided it was time to introduce herself. "Hello everyone, my first thought is holy crap, we are literally going up against a Goddess. But having said that. History has shown that even the Gods as we know them have been brought to task in the past. She has to have a weakness, and we have to find it. I'll be doing everything I can to find a weapon to deal with her beasts, as well as something to can slow or stop her. Have we any idea of her next target?" She asked

" Do we have any idea if Hera's tech is anything like the masters? " Thex inquired from her seat.

Enalia brought up a scan of one of the space chariots, which looked similar to Hermes' little ship, but more war-like. "Scans indicate that it should be on par with others of her kind but any countermeasures against the Master's tech we have should also be effective. Of the attacks that she's made, the fleet's trying to keep them under wraps and publicly brushing them off as pirates. So far only one has been taken down and it took a Galaxy class starship to do it. The rest were driven off with only minor losses. Command believes she's massing for an attack, but doesn't know which world she's planning to hit. Intel has been hard to get from her world."

"Do we know anything about her biology beyond the briefings I read, Captain? Or a list of Zeus progeny could yield a common DNA point. I hate to suggest targeted bioweapons, but.... " the young doctor trailed off.

Dauntless, Hera's new operations officer, looked from doctor to captain, as she leaned forward and cupped her chin in rapt attention. Monsters immune to phaser fire? Chariots that could outclass most starships? The 20 year-old lieutenant’s mind reeled from the revelation.

Chief Counselor Jurot spoke "The Federation has encountered advanced beings who craved worship on several occasions, as you've mentioned. The first recorded encounter was with a being called Apollo on Stardate 3468.1. That's when Captain James Kirk of the Enterprise discovered that destroying the power source caused the being to lose all power. On Stardate 6063.4, the same ship encountered a being which called itself Kukulkan, another ancient god from Earth history. In this case, they were able to reason with the being. Then of, course, were the many encounters with beings calling themself Q."

She shifted in her seat. "Perhaps some research into these beings could provide us with an angle with which we could end this issue without more bloodshed."

"If we can slip in like commandos and do the necessary damage in precise locations to accomplish our goals," the unconventionally uniformed first officer spoke up. "We can attempt to end the conflict without casualties. The point of this exercise is to cripple her power source and her armies, so that she can be reasoned with on a more equal ground. One where she's unable to turn you into a marmoset if you dare suggest she join the Federation and benefit from cooperation."

"So, how do we accomplish this mission, officers?"

As Enalia looked around the table at the still stunned collection of officers, she shut off the holographic display. "I had a thought on that but it's just a rough idea so far. We use the Hera as a distraction in space and offer what support we can while the Selune uses it's stealth to take out Hera's power source. At the same time, the Thor hits the army's infrastructure and support, crippling their ability to respond. After that, both away teams head to Hera's temple and convince her that it's in her best interest to give up her plans. If she doesn't..."

Tapping the controls in front of her some more, she pulled up the scans that were taken of the sword and spear that were borrowed from the forge master Vulcan to defeat the Master. "These are scans of weapons that can cut anything and will never heal. We borrowed them for a prior mission. Let's see if we can come up with something similar but a little less... Permanently lethal to us. If it can at least cut down a Minotaur, I'll be happy. If we can't come up with something, I'll authorize the use of the Section 31 armory."

"But hopefully we'll avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Just because Hera has declared war on the universe.... well, and gored and petrified our diplomatic envoys. And sent out her killer chariots that take a Galaxy-class to polish off... super alien sciences are just so odd," Paris shook her head. "But we're Starfleet Intel, so sneaky first, violent if sneaky doesn't work."

Internally Paris thought 'when sneaky doesn't work', as did most of the people in the room she suspected.

McBain had been listening to the more senior officers speaking. His research had not proved very promising but seeing the sword and spear had made him think maybe his idea was not so far fetched. He stood quietly to take the floor when no one else was speaking "Excuse me, I would like to offer something to the meeting. I have been doing research on this matter since I met the Captain a few days ago. These immortals are not harmed by much of anything I could find. There are stories of weapons made of a mineral named adamantine that is apparently magical and only made by them. In my research though I found a combination of tungsten and rhenium could make a material almost as dense as adamantine. I would like permission to meet with Science and Engineering to determine if a normal bladed weapon could enhanced by this material to make it more effective, against the minions at any rate. I did find some information that tungsten coated projectiles were shown to be more effective against the Borg."

McBain sat back down, he would not mention the Gorgon's head or the hydra's poison as those seemed far out of reach. It was not lost on him what the Captain planned. Taking out the power source or the infrastructure was unlikely to be a bloodless operation. They would need to be prepared for a fight. He figured one of those missions was going to include him. Neither sounded easy.

Sitting on a far side of the conference room, Sonak's voice filled the silence.

"Captain if I may. I apologize if I speak out of turn, as I have not even dicussed this yet with the chief science officer. But I think this is important to mention."

He stood up to be best heard.

"As our chief counselor has reported, the Federation has encountered many god-like entities in the last centuries; I am not refering of course to the pseudo-gods of certain civilizations like Val or Landru or the twenty-second century Sphere Builders or more recently the Dominion Shapeshifters of the Gamma Quadrant.I refer to true empowered entities. The Apollo encounter is most relevant in the present case, and in a smaller degree the one with the Kukulcan being. But there has been many others; in the twenty-third century, there were encounters with the Organians which imposed the Treaty of Organia and the Organia Peace treaty Zone still in effect between the Klingon and Federation borders; the Metrons during Starfleet's first encounter with the Gorn; the being called the Squire of Gothos capable of creating and moving planets also using some separate power source like the Hera entity we are facing; the so-called god of Shakaree at the center of the galaxy... And in the current twenty fourth century, Starfleet had encounters with the reality-altering Q entity; the Dowd, capable of thinking into oblivion an entire species across the universe; the being called Naguilum to which our corporeal existence is less than that of insects is to us; the Caretakers of the Delta Quadrant and the Bajoran-named Prophets of the Gamma Quadrant wormhole; and the last guardian of the T'Kon Empire."

He looked at everyone as he spoke and finished locking eyes with his commanding officer.

"Judging by the incomplete data we have, a military approach to the present situation is seemingly necessary at this point. But I would point out to the captain that, in every single such encounter in the past, the use of force alone has always failed."

McBain knew it was unwise to interject but in somethings his willpower seemed unable to override his impulsiveness. He stood facing Sonak and took a deep breath "If I may Lieutenant, I believe you are not being reasonable in this instance. The Metrons and Organians were peaceful entities, seeking a peaceful resolution. At a time when we were being hostile. They were not raiders seeking the destruction of Federation planets. I think that is a very distinct fact. I also recall Shakaree was indeed destroyed by the Klingon Klaa and his ship when that entity left his guard down. I believe the Borg or the Dominion is by far a better example of the nature in our present threat. Stopping an aggressor it appears to me is the situation here. The fact this aggressor is a Goddess is by far the biggest problem we face. She is not a disinterested party as many of the others you named. I believe you are comparing apples and oranges Sir."

"I would beg to differ, Sir, " the Vulcan stoically replied. " I would say your vegetable metaphor is more aptly describing your estimation.The Borg and the Dominion are in no measure to the level of this Hera entity and those others; they rely on instrumentality just as we do, and are as mortal as we do. This is not the case here."

Sensing the objection surging in the man, he raised a calming hand.

" But you have a point; most of those other entities were not inherently hostile, even the Q; certainly not as this Hera being seems to be. That being said, Humans have I beleive a saying that goes something like; do not bring a d'ktagh to a phaser fight. In the present case, we would be bringing a straw to fight a brachiosaurus. Make no mistake; such a being can destroy us with but a single thought."

He turned again to the captain.

"I am not saying we should not use force to save those endangered peoples from the immediate perils this entity has brought upon them... and soon to us. What I am saying is that we should consider alternatives to force when dealing directly with a being of such vastly superior power and agressiveness."


Ensign Jurot cleared her throat. "If this being is as powerful as suggested, she may have no physical weaknesses. I would think that the Klingons would have found and exploited one if there were one. I sense the tension in this room, and it has a good basis. Both Lt. Sonak and Ensign McBain have solid, if diametrically opposed points. Our ship doesn't have the raw firepower of a Galaxy or Sovereign class starship. As we are being sent, Starfleet has probably concluded that force is not the answer. Perhaps we are being sent to gather intelligence, or to find a more subtle means of dealing with this situation."

She turned to the Captain. "Captain, do we have any reports concerning Hera's psychic capabilities? A being of such power may be able to read a plan held in an untrained mind from a great distance. However, she may be vulnerable in this area as well."

Enalia had to correct the Counselor on one point she just made. "Actually, since our last refit, we're far better armed and armored than a Galaxy class thanks to Intel Command. We also have the power to wipe out that whole planet if it comes down to it." Leaving it at that, she moved on. "As for psychic defense training, Intel's more valuable assets tend to have the training for it. Myself and my Yeoman are trained. As for Hera's powers, we don't know the extent of her mental abilities. We know that she can transform people into animals though."

"As for our goal, You're all correct in a way. We need to go in with a big iTH'ka and smack her with it and hope she listens to reason. If she doesn't, we put her down with whatever force is necessary. I'd like to spare the native population if possible." Enalia left the rest of her last thought unsaid, but the unspoken part of it hung in the air like a wet fart that just wouldn't go away.

The Intel Chief had been quietly observing the discussion, watching and listening to all the points and counterpoints thus far, as well as taking in the intel gathered thus far. When the Captain finished, he stood, slowly, and addressed the room.

"Based on thuh Apollo Inc'dent recoahds, this Apollo fella didn't immediatleh powah down, once his powah soahce had been destroy-ed. Foahtunately, he was so hahtbroken at bein' rejected by hyumans that he chose to dissolve, rathuh than puhsue ret'ribyution. Hera is a differen' type o'enemeh, and has a true-blue hatred of all thuh offspring of Zeus. Might she use her remainin' powuh t'obliterate as much as possible, startin' with us? Or might she, in the intervenin' century, have heahd of thfate of Apollo, an'taken measures t'prevent th'd'struction of her source, oah, Gawd fuhbid, even have a backup source in play? Ah agree with thuh assessment that these ansuhs ah supremleh-impoahtant to not only owah suhvival of this engagement, but to th'suhvival of countless wuhlds. Ah respectfuhlly advise that we do what Intel does best- find out th'lay of thuh land, befoah we tip owah hand. This's a gunfight, not diplomacy, unless yer talkin' Jim kuhk's brand uv it. We came t'her openly, and she slaughtered owah people. We've got big guns, but callin' her out t'meet at High Noon'll just make sure she ups th'ante at 11:59." He turned to face the Captain directly. "She needs bushwhackin', Ma'am- an' we need t'know if'n she's got a posse ready t'git revenge even if we cut 'er down." He nodded in deference to the Piratical Plenipotentiary, and sat back down, his piece said.

"I concur with Mister Clemens' assessment," said Sonak nodding to the mustached human. "His analysis of the Apollo incident is flawless. As the most relevant precedent for our current situation, I would propose to base our intervention on this event. This Hera entity is acting in a most irrational manner and moreover proceeding from entirely false assumptions; but that does not imply any lack of intelligence. She might very well be quite ready for us."

The Vulcan made a pause before resuming his proposal, so that everyone could have time to process the implications of what he said.

"More importantly," he added, "she is obviously most emotional; she has been described as such by mythology and her entire current behavior is solely based on those emotions that has been attributed to her; jealousy, anger, resentment even cruelty and unfairness. Stoking such a fire would only precipitate our failure and many lives would be threatened and lost. But she has been called the patron of women, motherhood, family and marriage. I suggest that we should also work on these positive attributes to try to get to her and eventually reason with her."

McBain was only half listening at this point, way too much idle speculation and 'what-if's' for his mind. True Hera was emotional and vindictive so once you attacked her it was likely it would be all in. This was unlikely to end up as the Vulcan suggested in some diplomatic outcome. McBain was about as sure as he could be once the attack began it would be all out war. He had said apples and oranges and he still felt that was how it was. He spoke up even though he knew he should not. "You do understand that Apollo fellow, he wanted adoration and when he realized he was not going to get it, he 'chose' to close up shop. On the other hand Hera wants to avenge her honor. The saying 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'. Diplomacy was tried and failed. Now we need to focus on weapons that could hurt her."

McBain was a history buff and he remembered the ancient Crusades on Earth. "In like the year 1212, thirty thousand children left Germany and France to save the Christian Holy Lands from another faction of the time. They thought they were led by 'God' but their God failed to take notice. They all died or were sold into slavery, never reaching their Holy Land." McBain had no real faith in Hera's kindness being displayed. "My opinion is since Hera is recorded as being vengeful, once we attack in any fashion, I do not think we can risk counting on her good-nature side." He would pursue the making of weapons that might hurt the 'Gods'. Any other course to his mind was a fantasy.

The Vulcan nodded to him.

"Affirmative, Mister Mc Bain. This is exactly what I mean. Once we engage in confrontation with her, there might be no turning back. But we plan to engage on her own battlefield a foe that we have no hope in defeating on her own terms... and who is expecting us to do exactly that, therefore logically ready for us, as Mister Clemens pointed out. I am not saying we should offer no direct opposition to her actions; at this point, it would be illogical not to intervene. I will spare you the calculations as I know humans are not fond of such details, but it is however extremely improbable that we will prevail with this sole option."

Again he turned towards his commanding officer.

" There is therefore no logic in narrowing our actions only to the violent option; and no logic either in discarding an option because it failed but once... and of which we have no clue as to why it failed. The incomplete data we have gives no information at all as to how those diplomatic overtures were made; we only see the disastrous result. One thing I can point out though; as far as we have seen, their first mistake seems to have been their choice of representatives; they were all male."

" I may not know much about the Greek myths, but from what I can remember didn't Hera murder most of the women Zeus slept with? " The andorian said from her seat. " I think she'd have happily killed the representatives no matter what sex they were. I'd prefer we avoid fighting an angry goddess, but we'd better be prepared to."

"Lieutenant Sonak may have a point," Counselor Jurot said. "Hera was the patron goddess of women, and she supposedly lashing out due to the actions of a man- her husband. The failure and deaths of the previous diplomatic team may be because, as males, they represented all she was raging against. There almost definitely is some misandry at play here."

She turned to the Captain again. "Captain, our ship has a large amount of female officers, including in the top two positions. Perhaps a second attempt at diplomacy could be made with an all female delegation. You said earlier that you and Lieutenant Commander Paris have had training on guarding your thoughts. As you know, I do as well, as well as the capability of shielding your thoughts from outside sources. If we made a good faith effort at diplomacy, perhaps, as we are women, she would be more inclined to listen to us instead of instantly lashing out."

Avender looked around the room. "This would be extremely risky, but, from what I understand, the crew of this ship have faced more dire circumstances. If the negotiations fail, then a strike could be ready to launch immediately."

Asa took a deep breath…….”I’m not a sex she has dealt with…..I’m not any sex, and if she is psychic, she will see how much I hate my father for what he did to my mother. That will likely resonate. If it will save the lives of innocents, I will go. Is there a way we can send a holographic projector to communicate with her from a safe distance though? I’d prefer as not to not shake her hand while she melts me. “

"I know it was hard to tell since she's Selarian, but Ambassador Sta'thas was female before she was turned to stone." Enalia rested her head in her hands as she spoke. “This was also the third diplomatic team that was sent. The second one was all Vulcan women. She called them impish tricksters and turned them into marmosets. The first team was mixed evenly between human men and women and they were eaten by harpies before they set foot inside her temple." Looking up at the rest of the people in the room, she couldn't help but ask. "Would you like to see those videos as well?"

“So what you are saying, ma’am, is that speculation is what it is and we have our orders. Our mission is to sabotage the power generators she is using to draw her personal power, find a way to disable her army’s infrastructure so that she lacks the capacity to wage war, then approach her for another round of diplomatic negotiations once we are dealing from a better position?” Paris, as always, liked to bring the conversation back around to the point. “All with a minimum of bloodshed if possible, as I understand it?”

Enalia nodded, a hint of her piratical smirk showing. "Correct. The Diplomatic Corps have lost three ships on this so that's our job. Stack the deck and play another round of poker while she's still trying to play chess without her pieces. Once we've got all the cards, she might be in a far better mood to talk. If she isn't, she'll be far easier to get rid of."

French was in deep thought. On one hand they had this God for lack of a better term. Who had taken human form and launched an all out attack on the children of her Husband and killed as many of the women who had his children as she could find. And they needed to stop her? French thought inwardly, maybe they should help her. But somehow she did not think that would go over too well. But she felt she was on to something. why fight someone you most likely could not beat. when appeasement might work better. But she had to think this through before she brought it up. Someone had suggested an all female delegation. French thought they were on the right track. But deception was the only way this could work and we knew nothing of her psychic abilities. So finding her power base was crucial. Finding a way to cripple her or put her down completely was what they needed to decode from a security stand point. There was little that she and the security dept. could do to protect the crew on this mission and she knew that. But when all else failed, really big explosions might make the difference. Then she wished her friend was here. He might have a better take on this one than her. After all, he was a man of war.

Asa blurted out, "Achilles! Achilles heel was weak because it was not dipped in the river Styx. That implies there is a liquid source of some kind that imbues these beings with their invulnerability. If we can find it, we can try to find a way around the invulnerability. Do we have any leads on guarded liquid sources, specifically some kind of running water?"

Sonak answered her.

"According to myth, Achilles was not a god or even a demi-god like Herakles or Perseus but a mortal born of a man and a nereid; that's why his mother needed to give him this advantage and she had to do it while he was an infant, because dipping in the Styx also erases all of your memories forever. Again according to the myth, the immortality of the gods depended on another substance entirely; the consumption of ambrosia. That being said, this ambrosia might only be a symbolic representation of the actual power of those beings; namely the power source found with the god Apollo; which is one of our targets."

He looked once more at the captain.

"There is another thing we should consider if we go to confront her in person and hope to stop her; the fact that she is proceeding from completely false assumptions. For instance, consider humanity, which she has targeted as among Zeus children. This is utterly false, both in myth and in reality. In myth, Humans were created by the titan Prometheus from clay. Zeus never had anything to do with the existence of humans except in lording over them and abusing them. As for reality, the emergence of the human species is entirely and exclusively the sole product of Earth's biosphere. There is no trace whatsoever of any outside influence on it's emergence and evolution, except allegedly for the Seeder species at the very start of life itself, which, again, are not Zeus children in any sense of the word. If she could be shown her mistake in this one instance,that she is in fact destroying innocent children, women and families she claims to be the protectress of, then she might be willing to consider at least posponing her action and consider other ways."

McBain shook his head, "That is not entirely true. At least according to mythological history. True Zeus did not create humans. However one story the woman Io, daughter of Inachus of Argos. It is a perfect example of her ire. She rejected Zeus but her beauty angered Hera who tormented her all the days of her life until she reached the nation that became Egypt. Her children are credited with being the founders of the Egyptian civilization. Now reasonable or not Hera has gone after not only the women Zeus made out with, or even found attractive, but also their many children. The thing is she believes they are descendants of one of the many affairs of Zeus. If Io is considered the progenitor of the Eygptian race of humans, it is easy to see Hera's reasoning. No one has ever changed her mind. In fact the only one I ever found she forgave was Hercules."

McBain had done many hours of research over the last few days and nothing he had found looked promising. "I have no good ideas, I wish I did. We have been given the Ogre's choice. We follow our orders, act against Hera and risk failure. In which case millions die, or we do nothing and millions die. The outcome seems to be the same regardless. The only chance we have is to find a way to stop her. No one other than Zeus has really ever changed her mind once it was made. Even he was said to be hesitant to even attempt doing so. So we have to stop her ability to make war. Those prior Diplomats already revealed the chance of simply changing her mind."

"Aw, hell, folks. She's frakkin' crazy. Any amount o'reasonin' we do with her is as likely as not ta go sideways on a whim. What kinda meds do ya prescribe for a looney goddess?" Clemens was pacing, now, looking equal parts dismayed, angry, and frustrated. "Ah've got an answer- ya hafta put th'rabid beast down, an' th'rest of her pack. Ah hate ta say it, but we're all just playin' fer time ta figger out how ta cage 'er or kill 'er. She's already kicked Peace off'n th'board, and is flippin' a coin about who ta kill, melt, turn ta stone, or turn ta animals, next. Hell, we still don't know if she's trapped that poor woman in a form of stone fer eternity, and the others as animals with their sentience still intact. Her cruelty is random and boundless. Anyone we send t'speak with 'er is at a terrible risk. What if she acts like she agrees but sends 'em back to us as a killin' machine? Or plague carrier?" He stopped, suddenly, and bowed his head. "We gotta stall until we can make 'er as still as that diplomat."

Sonak nodded, his face set in stone.

"Then there are only three logical options left; we fight a costly guerilla war of attrition while doing our best to find this Zeus, the only being that has the power and a chance to sway her; or the Federation will either submit to her will and rage hoping ot will be spent before she annihilates all sentient life in the universe... or engage in all out war with her and then inevitably her entire species of godlike beings, until we come to our extinction. Again according to myth, we would be the fourth such mass extinction event from them; and all those previous races were deemed superior to us. Ingnoring mythology, anyone here can estimate the odds of us surviving such a war."

Clemens held up a hand, shaking his head, with a disturbingly-wolflike smile. "My deah Lieutenant, that premise pre-suppoahses that th'rest ov huh race isn't as tired of huh shite as th'rest of us. She's that auntie that used ta get invited tah th'fam'ly reunion, but that stopped when she bar-b-queued someone's grandkids. We've alreadeh seen that some o'her famileh are takin' a stand against th'family madness. They've helped us befoah against their kin. An' d'ya think th'Q're just gonna sit back an'let 'er wipe out theah pet project, along with ennah chance uv evah toyin' with us again? She's off 'er rockuh, an' doesn't think twice 'bout genocide- no one's safe, maybe includin' owah upstayrs neighbuhs- Oahganya may even throw in foah this fight- they like things fayuh." His smile became a lot more cold. "We gotta show we're worth savin', tho. An' show th'rest just how bat-spit crazy she is."

"Then, Mister Clemens, the first option would be the one we should engage in," agreed the Vulcan."This would be in line with what Mister Mc Bain infered when mentionning Hercules; or Herakles, "Glory to Hera" to give him his proper Greek name. Herakles proved himself doing his Twelve Labors and upon his death was brought up to Mount Olympus and made an immortal."

Counselor Jurot stood slowly. "Please excuse my bluntness, but I think this discussion is irrelevant. The Captain has stated clearly what our orders are, and what Starfleet expects of us."

Jurot looked around the room, trying to contain her anger. "We can sit here and debate options all we wish, but in the end it's all academic. Isn't it, Captain?" She looked at the Captain, sighed, and sat back down.

"If it ISN'T academic, than I volunteer to meet Hera, alone if necessary, and try to use my training to reason with her. After all, 'loonies' are my specialty." The Counselor sat with her face expressionless, and again looked around the room.

"Debate is healthy. It gives everyone a voice in the issue, and for their perspective to be heard. Personally I find value in it, because I want to hear the input of each officer in this room," Paris stood for a change, be it for visibility or dramatic effect was debatable. "Frankly, we've got a lot of perspectives. What we don't have are facts. How many troops, based where with what sort of supply lines. What's going on with the indigenous population? Do these various mythological beings have weaknesses? Where are those generators feeding her power, are there patrols of those chariot vehicles, what's the range that she can sense us. Can she sense probes?"

"Now that we've all had a chance to react to the situation, let's start working on solutions, people," Paris offered a smile, though it was a bit of a grim affair. "We need intel, and we need to gather it without alerting a very powerful enemy. Because if we are going to war, we don't want to set it off before we're ready, while we're still playing guessing games."

"With that said, we expect a report from each department on what we can do to gather intelligence on these enemies, on this planet of hostile and powerful beings led by a goddess hell-bent on revenge. Because otherwise we're wandering into a fight with forces we can't defeat, and we're doing so hoping for good luck. And in my experience," Paris' expression turned to one of chagrin, "Good intel can be counted on. Lady Luck tends to be a bit more fickle. Reports on the Captain's desk 24 hours before we reach the Meroset system."

Enalia unlocked her secure PaDD from the table and clicked it on to look at the brief plans she had started, editing them as she went. "One thing we can count on as well is past encounters. I'm making that data available as well and briefs will be sent to all of your terminals. As for the away missions, Strike team Selune will go for her power source or sources. Clemens, you'll lead the team with McBain, the Baroness, and one to three tactical crewmen. Stay stealthed as long as possible. Strike team Thor will go for her army's infrastructure and supply. Paris, you're leading that team. The Thor is built to take a beating from a starbase so feel free to ram things if you have to. Take French, Dael, Sonak, Thex, and one to three tactical crewmen. You'll be the obvious mission while the Hera is bait. The rest of us will be doing our best to draw attention to ourselves. Once your individual missions are done, meet up at Hera's temple and once you have it secured... Counselor, we'll beam you down if you're game and it'll be up to you and Paris to convince the kookie goddess to surrender. If she doesn't... McBain gets to add a very special kill marker." Having finished, Enalia turned and nodded to Rita to finish up the briefing in her own style.

"Any questions?" the unconventionally-uniformed first officer looked around at the assemblage. "Excellent. Let's move with a purpose, people. We've got a goddess to outsmart!"