AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, the length here actually means something, so don't skip. Here is your next lesson for Part 2, a run-down of "my" Lylat System. I wrote this, essentially, because of two gripes I have with Star Fox physics. Yes, I realize that it's kind of a non sequitur to complain about unrealistic physics in a story about talking animals in space, but hey, we're all dorks here and I haven't heard any complaints yet about injecting some realism into this series. Basically, first off, it's kind of impossible for the Lylat "System" to belong to a single star like the Solar System, because a star has a 'habitable zone', meaning that a planet has to be a certain distance from it in order to be not too hot and not too cold to support life or harbor conditions that life can survive on. A star's habitable zone is only big enough for about 1-2 planets (I stretched it with 3). If all of the Lylat System's planets orbited one star, most would be either dead rocks too cold to even walk on, dead rocks too hot to even walk on, or they'd be colliding into each other to fit into the habitable zone. Second, even if all of the Lylat System's planets could orbit one star and still all support life, it wouldn't be Solar. An M-class red dwarf star is one of the coldest, smallest types of star. Yes, you can say that it will last much longer because of this. That just means it's going to burn cold for a hundred billion years instead of ten billion years hot enough to support life. The only way one planet could maybe support life orbiting one is by being in the habitable zone, which would be so close to a red dwarf that the planet would be tidally locked, with one side always in light and one side always in darkness. Again, there's no way all the planets could orbit Solar's habitable zone, either, because they'd run into each other once again. So, astronomy lesson short, I made the Lylat System a multiple star-system, with six (G-class, like the Sun) stars that are mysteriously distributed around Solar in a vague circle, with Sectors X, Y, and Z interspersed. I also tried to make it all fit in as well as I possibly could with the existing games (point of confusion: Fortuna is a rainforest planet, as shown in Star Fox: Assault. Fichina is the name of the ice planet in 64, which was misspelled as Fortuna) and not contradict anything too much. One thing I did ignore was the complicated gravitational dynamics of a multiple star system, in which each star basically orbits each other, and astronomers usually need supercomputers to model. I decided that you didn't really care about the details that much, and if you do, tough, because I'm an English major, and trying to do the calc required to figure that crap out would probably make my brain explode. As another thing, all of the species names are not some weird code I've done. It's mainly just taking either the Family or Genus names of the animals they represent. Wiki them if you're that confused. I realize this is the longest Author's Note I've written in a series of Author's Notes, so I'll just say this one last thing, for those of you who get all of the references: Yes, you're right. Katina is the wild, wild west. After all, it is Wolf's home planet. Read or die! – TU
Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Corneria, 18th Edition
Lylat System: Rather than a single star system, the Lylat System is a region of space near the center of the galaxy, made up of six star systems interspersed between a trio of large, anomalous gas nebulae (known respectively as Sectors X, Y, and Z) and all in close proximity to the small M-class red dwarf star known as Solar. Of the six star systems of Lylat, at least one planet in each is home to some form of life, and all, with the possible exceptions of Venom and Fichina, host conditions favorable to supporting organic life. Though Solar is far too small, dim and cold a star to support life if it were host to its own planets, its centralized location in the Lylat System along with its cultural significance, scientific importance and energy resources make it a valuable Lylat milestone. Thus, despite the fact that they are spaced in a rough circle around the star, the star systems of Lylat are informally 'ordered' by their relative proximity to Solar.
-The Kragg Sub-System (500,456,821 km from Solar): Closest to Solar by about five hundred million kilometers, the Kragg Sub-System is the nearest system to the highly tumultuous and chaotic nebula known as Sector X, and is home to the planets Titania and Fichina. Titania (see article), the closer of the two to the sub-system's star, Kragg, is a barren desert world, populated by mostly small mammalian, reptilian and insectoid wildlife, though the large concentration of ruins on Titania indicates that the world was once home to an advanced, intelligent society. Fichina (see article) is much farther from Kragg, and is thus an icy, barely-hospitable planet, however colonization efforts have been underway on Fichina for many decades in the hopes that terraforming may make the planet more habitable.
-The Triton Sub-System (706,211,130 km from Solar): The second-closest star system to Solar, Triton is a bright, young star with enough light and heat to create some of the most lush and prosperous planetary conditions in all of Lylat. Three planets, Fortuna, Zoness and Aquas are located in the Triton Sub-System, all of which are similar in their humid, water-rich environments. Fortuna (see article), the first planet of the sub-system, is a densely rainforest-covered world home to many species of intelligent life, the most dominant being the avian, reptilian and primate races, as well as some breeds of the feline race. The second planet, Zoness (see article) is dominated by oceans, save for several scattered island chains that dot the planet's watery surface. Its famous, dense kelp forests and reef systems are home to numerous aquatic wildlife spcimens, as well as the intelligent and amphibious enhydra race. Once a popular vacation spot of the Lylat System, Zoness is, as of this writing, still undergoing intense ecological renovation due to the severe environmental damages of the Lylat War (see section: Lylat War [subsection: Operation: Water Rot]). Aquas (see article), the final planet, is covered completely by water, with no permanent landmass recorded as of yet. Aquas is home to millions of aquatic wildlife, as well as the home planet of the amphibian toad race and the exclusively aquatic shark and dolphin races.
-The Oesté Sub-System (989,892,031 km from Solar): Third in line is the Oesté Sub-System, a smaller star system with a single planet known as Katina (see article). A world of semiarid plains and warm, rocky deserts, Katina was the first planet to be colonized by Cornerian explorers in the early days of the Cornerian Empire (see article), and still maintains its untamed, frontier reputation after centuries of colonization due to terraforming difficulties and low population density. An important military base for the Cornerian Army, Fort Eastwood, is maintained outside of Katina's largest city of Tombstone.
-The Cornerian Sub-System (1,126,451,508 km from Solar): Fourth from Solar is the system home to the star known as Lylat (from which the entire interstellar community derives its name) and the planet of Corneria (see article), regarded as the most important planet in the Lylat System. Bordered by the large asteroid field known as Meteo, Corneria is a large, fertile world of expansive, temperate farmland, small oceans and the largest cities in Lylat. The homeworld of all species of the canid race (including vulpines, lupines, wolverines, and all ethnicities of canines), the equine race, the leporid race, the rodent race, the aries race, and many breeds of the feline race, Corneria is the source of most intelligent life in the Lylat System. The development of Corneria is a testament to the brilliance of its species. Much of the planet's population is dispersed amongst five large mega-cities, each hundreds of kilometers in size, around the planet. The five mega cities include the capitol, Corneria City (see article), the former capitol and oldest mega-city of Pennopolis, the military and industrial center of Anaxes, the culturally diverse and permissive city of Apollo, and the city of Oceana, still recovering from the damages it suffered in the Lylat War. Besides this, every section of dry land in Corneria is devoted to either coastal resort towns, fishing enterprises or agriculture, making Corneria one of the central breadbaskets of Lylat. After centuries of interplanetary immigration and colonization, Corneria is home to 85% of the Cornerian Commonwealth's population and 45% of the total Lylat population, producing a grand variety of cultures and representations of life throughout the galaxy. This has assisted Corneria in becoming the most politically and economically influential planet in the Lylat System, and has spurred the development of the Cornerian Commonwealth (see section), headquartered in Corneria City (see article), to maintaining continued governance of the former Cornerian Empire's colonies of Fichina, Katina, Papetoon, Zoness and Aquas. Corneria is also the headquarters of the Cornerian Army and Cornerian Defense Force (see section: Cornerian Armed Forces), both of which answer to the Cornerian Commonwealth Parlaiment.
-The Papetoon Sub-System (1,228,880,520 km from Solar): Though not quite the furthest system away from Solar, the star of Papetoon and its planets are the most isolated, being located the farthest distance away from the other five sub-systems, and dangerously close to the radioactive nebula Sector Z. Due to this, the planets of the Papetoon system have enjoyed relative solitude from the rest of Lylat. The first planet of the Papetoon system, sharing the same name as its star, is the newest colonial claim of the Cornerian Commonwealth (see article: Papetoon [planet]), a dry arid world similar to Katina save for higher average temperatures and even lower water concentration. The second planet, Sauria (see article), also known as Dinasaur Planet, is even more isolated by a dense asteroid field, which has led to the development of a primitive though exotic tribal culture amongst the various intelligent (though non-advanced) species of dinosaurs that rule the primeval world. Only recently has Sauria and its inhabitants made official contact with the rest of the Lylat System (see article: Saurian Crisis).
-The Verona Sub-System (1,288,340,405 km from Solar): Just a slight sixty million kilometers further from Solar than the Papetoon Sub-System, on the opposite end of the Lylat System (2,414,791,913 km) from Corneria, the planets orbiting Verona share a mutual dark history. The first planet of the Verona system, Venom (see article), is a harsh world of volcanic wastelands, rocky canyons and acidic oceans. The atmosphere was once considered just barely breathable, and Venom was thought until recently to be home to no indigenous life. In the decades before the Lylat War (see section), exiled scientist and terrorist Andross (see article) formed a colony on Venom with the support of the Cornerian Commonwealth, which led to terraforming and atmospheric processing that made colonization of Venom (barely) possible. The colonists of Venom were comprised of mostly primates, though scores of rodents, reptiles, wolves and various other races also emigrated, lured there both by the favorable speciesist policies of Andross and driven away from Macbeth and planets of the Cornerian Commonwealth by the official (though unacknowledged), economic and social speciesist discrimination of the time (see article: Lylat under dehorseri). The negative treatment by the rest of Lylat towards these races, and the positive treatment by Andross, greatly increased the Venomian colonists' support of Venomian independence from Corneria and the formation of the Venomian Empire (see article: Venomian Empire of Andross) which eventually culminated in the Lylat War. The second planet of Verona, Eladard (see article), was a small, unexplored planet quickly claimed and colonized by the Venomian Empire, which then proceeded to build factories and starship construction yards in order to swiftly and secretly conduct its arms build-up prior to the Lylat Wars. The current state of Eladard is one of extreme atmospheric and oceanic contamination due to the high levels of pollution from the dense Venomian factories, and any life that may have once lived on Eladard is almost surely extinct. The third planet of Verona is Macbeth (see article), a mineral-rich world that declared its independence from the Cornerian Empire long ago, and has become a financial and industrial power in its own right. A center of enterprise and production, especially for the mining, durasteel and aerospace industries, Macbeth's government is known for its corruption, mostly functioning by the will of the powerful mega-corporations that hold sway over the planet's vast resources. The relative weakness and lack of preparation of Macbeth's government made it a prime target for invading Venomian forces, which annexed the planet in the first stages of the Lylat Wars, committing horrible atrocities against the civilian population (see article: Wayland Massacre) that would define the Venomian Empire's brutal invasion tactics for the rest of the war.
-Outer Rim Territories: Though not part of the Lylat System proper, several outlying star systems beyond the Lylat System have had a role in the Lylat System's history. Scattered around the unexplored outskirts of Lylat space, these systems include:
--Wuxia (see article): A small, ancient system 2 parsecs beyond the Cornerian Sub-System, Wuxia is an overgrown planet of massive trees, forests, and mountains, interspersed with ancient temples and ruins. A small, secretive and nearly extinct order of monks known as the Order of the Iron Lotus are the only living remnants of what was once a relatively advanced civilization. The isolationism and disdain of the Order for technology and foreigners has kept the planet a seldom-visited world shrouded in mystery. One of the few cultural ambassadors to the planet, Commander James McCloud (see article: McCloud, James), was rumored to have been accepted and trained by the Order of the Iron Lotus in their legendary unarmed combat disciplines. McCloud never gave any recorded statement regarding his training on Wuxia prior to his death, however many that observed him in life commented on his exceptional and unnatural skill at the martial arts; a testament to the secrets that the planet of Wuxia holds.
--Temple (see article): Discovered a decade prior to the Lylat Wars, Temple rivals Titania in its archeological significance. Covered almost entirely in ancient, (though quite modern by current standards) remarkably well-preserved cities, Temple is speculated to be the ancient homeworld of the now-extinct owl race, which theoretically developed separately from all other avian races of the Lylat System and built their own advanced society before vanishing into legend without a trace. Despite academic pleas to the contrary, the Cornerian Parlaiment decided that funding for archaeological excursions to Temple was too costly, given Temple's extreme 16 parsec distance from its closest neighbor, the Triton Sub-System, and used the space surrounding Temple as a galactic dumping ground for the millions of tons of interstellar debris left over from the Lylat Wars, the Aparoid Invasion and several other conflicts. The abandoned nature of Temple, along with the abundance of hiding places in its forsaken cities, has led Temple and the space around it to become a known hiding space for criminals and pirates, much like the Sargasso Space Zone near Sector Y (see article: Sargasso Space Zone).
--Cerinia (see article: Myth of Cerinia [Possible Existence]): The very question of Cerinia's existence remains disputed. Though historical records make mention of a mysterious, forested planet beyond the Papetoon Sub-System, these accounts are nearly two thousand years old, before the advent of warp drive engines. Regardless of the truth, Cerinia is said to have been a small forest-planet orbiting a very young, peculiar blue star. The Cerinians supposedly were a race of blue-furred vulpines, with an advanced, archaic culture entrenched in mysticism and spirituality. They were said to be able to travel the stars without the use of a starship, and some legends even purported that Cerinians had the ability to see the future and read the thoughts of others. The legendary abilities of the mythical Cerinians, if they did exist, are theorized to have had something to do with mutations from the high ultraviolet light that a blue star would give off. There remains some connection between the Cerinians, the planet Sauria, and the pagan Krazoa Faith (see article: Krazoa), however the dinosaur tribes of Sauria have little to offer but more legend. Recently, a star system similar to the Cerinian system told of in myth was discovered several light years beyond the Papetoon Sub-System. Despite intriguing artifacts and ruins that are still being interpreted, the planet itself is devoid of all life, and has been for at least a few years. If Cerinia ever did exist, its people were destroyed by some unexplained calamity, and though rumors persist that some Cerinians remain wandering the galaxy, these rumors have yet to be substantiated.