AUTHOR'S NOTE: I may need to check into StarFox rehab. For some ungodly reason, I'm addicted. Though it could just be my boredom in the last days of winter break. Here is my THIRD StarFox fanfic, which (for those of you newcomers) takes place in the same canon as my other stories, "A Great Day to Die" and "Cubs". What that basically means is that it's a darker, maybe more realistic take on the StarFox universe, with my own interpretations of the characters, even though it still follows the stories of the SF games (except for Command, which sucked). Where "A Great Day to Die" takes place in Fox and Wolf's latest time, after the Aparoid Invasion, and "Cubs" concerns their early childhood leading up to the Lylat Wars, "War Stories" is a collection of 3 stories about pivotal events in the Lylat Wars itself. Notice that I didn't say 'short stories', I said 'stories'. Don't hate me because I write A LOT; instead be grateful. And don't worry if you haven't read the other stories; as long as you kind of know your StarFox history you'll understand it. Anyway, before each story you're going to get a little false-document background that details some parts of my version of the Lylat System, so that I don't have to spend so much time having the characters awkwardly explain it during the stories so much. So, here's your first lesson. Begin.
Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Corneria, 18th Edition
Religion: Though, in the last Lylat census, nearly 80% of Lylat citizens claimed to be atheist, two religious beliefs in Lylat System history retain their importance to the interstellar community and Lylat culture at large.
-Lylatianism: The dominant religion of the Lylat System since the advent of warp drive engines more than 1,500 years ago, Lylatianism worships the God Lyla (always referred to as both a female and a God rather than a Goddess), the creator of the Lylat System. Depicted as a robed canine with six wings, one for each star system of Lylat, Lyla was said to have created every living thing in the Lylat System, and given a select few species the ability to speak in a moment known as the Great Gift. Afterwards, Lyla was said to have turned into the red dwarf known as Solar, and would reappear at the star's expiration to end the Lylat System, punishing the wicked and rewarding the righteous. Though Lylatianism preaches tolerance, forgiveness, peace, selflessness, and ethics, various interpretations of Lylatian myth have drawn criticism and harsh debate, the foremost of which is the story of the Great Gift, which describes Lyla coming down from heaven and giving the gift of speech to the canids, felines, avians and leporids that approach her, while a group of lupines, reptiles, rodents, and primates hiding in the trees also receive the gift of speech. As a 'person' is defined in the Lylat System by the ability to speak, debate has arisen as to whether the story describes the species hiding in the bushes as too afraid to approach Lyla, and receiving the Gift anyway, or as assuming the ability to speak when it was not offered to them. Belief in the latter interpretation has been cited as a cause for the several speciesist policies of the (dominantly canid and feline) Cornerian Empire and the Commonwealth that replaced it, including the unofficial policy of dehorseri.
-Krazoa Faith: Records show evidence of the belief in the Krazoa, a god-like pantheon of spirits, going back even before Lylatianism. Ruins on Titania, in the jungles of Fortuna, in the abandoned cities of Temple, and in the palaces of Sauria, all make at least some reference to the polytheistic Krazoa Faith. According to the myths, the Krazoa created the entire universe, giving special attention to the Lylat System, creating all living things and giving sentience its form. The Krazoa are said to represent the forces of nature and chaos, while at the same time being comprised of the life force of every creature that has ever lived. The Krazoa Faith is a complex, convoluted belief, part nature-worship, part-ancestor worship, part multi-god cult. Though all common knowledge of the Krazoa Faith has died out in the Lylat System, with the exception of the historians and archaeologists that study it, the Krazoa Faith is the only religion of the tribes of the planet Sauria, and was apparently also practiced by the people of the mythical planet of Cerinia. Though several groups in centuries past were recorded as having practiced the Krazoa Faith and its rituals, almost all of these groups were met with harsh and sometimes violent persecution by both the Cornerian Empire and the Lylatian Church, which may have led to the faith's ridiculed, if not forgotten status in the majority of the Lylat System. Despite its archaic, hokey reputation amongst most that still remember it, several of the phenomena attributed to the Krazoa spirits that occurred during the Saurian Crisis (see article: Saurian Crisis), such as Sauria's recovery from extreme planetary disintegration and the alleged 'resurrection' of Andross, are as of yet unexplained.