A/N: This is a short chapter. It's just a filler to get ready for the next chapter.
Phase 6: Reanalysis
The council chamber of Olympus had suddenly turned into Tartarus. Everybody was yelling, arguing, and placing blame on one another.
"You botched the spear, didn't you, Hephaestus?" Poseidon accused.
"You dare insult my work?!"
"It had to have been Ares," Artemis said.
Apollo agreed with her. "Yeah, he didn't even want to terraform Mars in the first place."
"That is not fair," Aphrodite defended.
The arguing was all over the place with the blame. Even when Ares returned in a raging fit, they pursued to ask him what happened.
"It's a dead rock! Just like I said!" Ares shouted as he sat on his throne.
"SILENCE!" Thunder boomed.
Automatically, everyone stopped speaking to let the king get a word in.
"In light of this new development, we must reanalyze the situation. We must assess the planet to see how to make it more similar to Earth. Ares, can you tell us any details you saw up there that might give us some clues?"
"It's a dead rock that doesn't want to live. That's what!" the god of war spat out.
The eyebrow of Zeus twitched. "Anything specific?"
Ares took a moment to ponder. "The primordial has grown into a fetus, I think. But so what?"
Zeus ignored that retort. "Athena, Hephaestus? You two may have a better understanding of the planet's physical characteristics. Could you please give us your insight?"
Both the goddess of wisdom and the god of the forge stepped forward to stand by the brazier. In the flames, a hologram of Mars hovered between them.
Hephaestus spoke first. "First off, Mars's density is 3.93 g/cm3 whereas Earth's density is 5.514 g/cm3 —"
"—This makes Mars's gravity only 38% as strong as Earth's," Athena picked up. "If we plan for people to travel from world to world, the gravitational pull needs to be similar for their health—"
"—And the core doesn't rotate properly, which doesn't give the planet a strong enough magnetic field to protect it from solar radiation, and doesn't lock the atmosphere down—"
"—Which made the atmosphere currently less than one percent the density of Earth's. The thin atmosphere also forced all the surface water to boil off or freeze. The air currently contains 95% carbon dioxide, 2% nitrogen, and the rest as other gases. None of which is breathable for any animal or enough for plant life."
"And we don't want to forget that Mars is on the edge of the Habitable Zone from the sun—"
"I might be able to help with that," Apollo interjected.
"Thank you, Lord Apollo. We'll talk about that later," Hephaestus said, returning to the lecture. "Looking at this logically, I say the first step for terraforming the planet is to fix up the core to be on par with the Earth's. While I work on that, the rest of you send meteors, asteroids, and comets—preferably with water—raining down to the planet's surface to increase mass and density. Then there is the matter of the atmosphere. The bombardment and volcanic activity will heat the world to create a greenhouse effect and melt the polar ice caps, releasing any CO2 trapped within. If there isn't enough water in the world—or if it might have been vaporized from the bombardment—Poseidon, try to find some water that would be a decent minimum to transfer to the oceans. Then there is the matter of plant life, which we'll discuss later. Sorry, Lady Demeter."
Zeus nodded approvingly. "Seems simple enough. However, it will take some time and work. But at least the mortals are slow at producing space travel. I think we have the time."
Athena suddenly spoke. "Father, I just had an epiphany. Since we move with the center of Western Civilization, don't you think we could end up on Mars ourselves? In time, the humans will produce civilization on the planet, and there's a chance it will be a prosperous world. What if Mount Olympus moves to Olympus Mons?"
Zeus took a moment to consider such a prediction. And coming from Athena, it does sound possible. "I think we've been through this plenty of times over the centuries to be used to it. So what if it's on another planet? For now, it's not in the foreseeable future."
"So," Hephaestus started to speak, "when shall I go to fix the core?"
The king of the gods stared at him. "How long do you think you can get ready? And that goes for the lot of you. When will you be ready? Because we are not waiting any longer."
A/N: The gods are going to use the full extent of their power. Please review to get ready for these conquerors to extend their Empire.