I was able to find and contact one of the original story writers for the "Fistful of Aliens" line Steve Englehart. Steve was hired by YES! Entertainment to create the story for FoA which became a huge part of the game itself. Below you will find the original document Steve so kindly sent me to share with everyone. As you will notice some items in this are different than when release, for instance THE NAME OF THE GAME!!! It seems the original game title was suppose to be "Fists of Power" it is unknown to me at this time why this name was never used but other companies with similar names brings up discussion on copy-write / trademark issues. Some other things were also changed, read the story and see if you can find them!
-Unyaro
(This is a direct copy and paste from the original document with Steve's contact information removed)
FISTS OF POWER!
REV 2
Steve Englehart
The Elemental staggered out of the alien night and dove for the cover of a shattered rock. Everything on this world was shattered since the Great Wars began raging through the solar system, but he was still whole. He’d stay that way, too, if the Dredrocks hadn’t improved their tracking skills. He had to survive! He was the hope of the solar system!
Now they came, those massive marauders. Their voices, like the crackle and hiss of raging flames, carried eerily on the night air. They’d lost him, and they wouldn’t move onward until they had an idea of which way to go. The Elemental was trapped. There was nothing for him to do but lie still—and remember…
Remember the Prophecy!
There was a time, not so very long ago really, that this solar system had been at peace. There were three worlds there:
Closest to the sun, and smallest, was the red and rocky world of the Dredrocks. Little vegetation grew, for there was almost no water. All the eye could see was barren, sunbaked rock, red as blood. The creatures that lived there had immense, muscular arms and hands from digging in the ancient mines. Their feet were distinguished by thick toe nails which could dig into any surface. Their hair was wild and snaky.
The second world was farther from the sun, but bigger. This was the world of the Gangreens, a steamy water world full of lakes and languorous plants. Its inhabitants were insectoid, with slimy green bodies and multiple arms ending in scizzor-like appendages. They were always hungry, with large, beady eyes forever searching for their next meal, the bloodier the better.
The third and final world was much farther from the sun, but much larger as well. This shadowy world was covered in frozen blue liquid: the acidic secretions of all the decomposing dead since the dawn of time. The creatures who lived there were very strange by anyone’s standards; their arteries coursed with acid which ate its way in their skin, but without which they could not exist. Their heads were large and so were their eyes, to see in their world’s dim light. Their feet were webbed to act as “snow shoes” in walking on the eternal ice. And their name for themselves was their race’s greatest secret, so the other worlds called them simply “Bluebloods.”
Like any family, disputes arose among the three races from time to time, but there was never any serious conflict because their powers balanced each other. Any Blueblood could beat any Dredrock, because acid dissolved even hardened flesh. Any Dredrock could beat any Gangreen, because muscle ripped slime to pieces. And any Gangreen could beat any Blueblood, because their slime was a natural acid neutralizer.
So they lived in peace…until Jangutz Khan came.
His armada flashed from the depths of space without warning, simultaneously striking the three worlds with overwhelming firepower. Before any effective resistance could be mounted, his ships moved into stationary orbit above each sphere. From there they beamed shimmering silver rays which marked out an area one hundred miles square on each planets’ surface, and anyone caught in that square found that he could not escape it; Khan had created an ionic prison.
Then, into each of the three prisons, a great, gleaming ship descended. Each of the three ships opened a doorway, and onto each of the three worlds strode a tall, commanding cyborg, metallic implants shining in the sun. Simultaneously, the three cyborgs spoke:
“I am Jangutz Khan. My mortal body was lost centuries ago, so my mind was transferred into this cloned form. I am here and I am everywhere. You cannot defeat me, but you shall defeat my enemies!”
Then hordes of robotic soldiers spewed from the ships—and the Training began.
The imprisoned Dredrocks, Gangreens, and Bluebloods were given a simple choice: fight for Jangutz Khan, or die. Many chose to die rather than submit, but many more chose to live, even as slaves. Khan’s training was brutal but effective; those who survived it quickly became skilled fighting machines. And Khan rewarded good fighting with promotions, so that a soldier could work his way up in this brave new world. When these armies were fully prepared, Khan opened the prisons and sent them to attack the rest of their creatures. It was this that he lived for.
“I hate living in these clones,” he brooded as he watched on all three worlds. “I was just a soldier seeking an exciting life and glorious death on an alien battlefield—but the aliens I was fighting when I was mortally wounded did this to me, as part of some arcane experiment. Now I’m forced to live forever—so I’ll spend every moment of it making the universe pay!”
But the free creatures had used this time as well. The spirit of hope within them had never even flickered in the face of this threat, for they had learned a valuable lesson from their history. Every time one of the three races had attacked the race it could always defeat, the third race, the one that could always defeat the attacker, had come to put a stop to things. Each race had ultimately realized that no one could win a war among them, and so the time of peace had come. The natural balance of their worlds taught them to believe that they would all always prevail.
They had organized their own armies, and unlike Khan, they knew how power worked in their solar system. When Khan’s Dredrock soldiers burst forth, they were met, not by other Dredrocks, but by Gangreens—and any Gangreen can beat any Dredrock. It was the same on each world: Khan lost the first battle.
But Khan had not survived so many years by losing wars. Once he realized what was happening, he withdrew his soldiers into their prisons—or forts, now—and developed a new plan. If the natural order created balance among the three creatures, he would upset the natural order. He commanded his SciRoids to create a mutation combining the three creatures into one. However, it soon became clear that the three creatures had mutually exclusive genetic makeups, so that all three could not be combined. It was possible to make Dredrock-Gangreen mutants, Gangreen-Blueblood mutants, or Blueblood-Dredrock mutants, but never Dredrock-Gangreen-Blueblood mutants.
Still, the two-source mutants were twice as strong as any single being, and had no built-in reason to lose to any other being. That would certainly be enough for his purposes. He set them to lead his armies of normal creatures.
But in the hidden depths of the Dredrock deserts, the Gangreen swamps, and the Blueblood ice floes, the free creatures were also still at work. Khan’s alien SciRoids had failed to create a three-sourced mutant, but the native scientists knew their creatures better. If those scientists, working to free their homeworlds, could succeed where Khan’s Droids had failed—if they could create a mutant stronger than Khan’s two-sourced mutants—then the worlds could yet be free!
So it was that the Great War was finally joined. The three Khans’ armies were greatly outnumbered, but they had the mutants. The war raged for many months, and slowly, inexorably, the Khans kept rolling toward final victory.
Finally, on the bleak slopes at the south pole of the ice planet, the Khan there ran the last of the resistance to ground. The rebels made a valiant stand, but it was hopeless—and they knew it was hopeless. Just before Khan’s troops moved in, the Blueblood leader diverted all their remaining power from Weapons & Shields to the Project Chamber, and an emerald beam shot into the shadowy sky, toward the softly glittering dot of light that was Dredrock. Khan was too slow to intercept it, and just at that moment, the rebels all came forth to face him.
“In the name of the three worlds!” their leader cried in a voice which caused the ice to rumble around them, “In the name of the three races, I make this prophecy: at this moment when you most feel triumphant, Jangutz Khan—you have just lost this war!”
Khan destroyed him without a second thought. And he laughed, and the other Khans on the other worlds laughed as well. The acid must have eaten into the Blueblood’s brain, for indisputably, he had won!
…Or had he? In the aftermath, the mutants were left with an appetite for war and no enemies—except other mutants. Soon skirmishes were breaking out among Khan’s own soldiers. The three Khans used all their power to keep them in line, but the hatreds were too ingrained, too strong. The beings Khan had created to serve him proved too powerful to be contained. In the end the three forms of the great Jangutz Khan had to flee for his life. The mutants celebrated for seventeen days, but not one of them believed they had seen the last of their former master.
So it was that each mutant gathered small groups of soldiers around him and tried to become Jangutz Khan’s successor. Each tried to become the most powerful warrior in the solar system, and battles were fought day and night among the many groups. Some mutants reasoned that when Khan returned, they would need to be as strong as possible to withstand his attack. Others reasoned that when Khan returned, they would need to be as strong as possible to deliver armies to him, so they could become his right-hand man again. But either way, they fought.
And they forgot about the Prophecy.
But huddled among boulders on the Dredrocks’ world, unseen by the soldiers who pursued him, the Elemental did not forget. For he was the fruit of the scientists’ labors—the mutant made from all three races. He was young yet, and not yet ready to wreak his revenge upon the forces of evil which ruled the three worlds…but his time would come. If he could survive, he would show them all. But for now, all he could do was hide, and wait, and watch the bands of warriors as they fought their eternal wars. He was the future! He was Hope!
And Hope will never surrender!
NOTES:
•I don’t believe you can have creatures escaping from Khan’s prisons and have Khan be more powerful than he already is. Prisoners might figure out a way to escape given time, but they have no time. Giving them time makes no sense considering Khan’s single-minded malevolence.
•I much prefer the resistance to a group of mutants in the creation of the Elemental; it strikes a stronger chord of hope to have the “normals” do it.
Edited by Unyaro, 10 November 2016 - 11:32 AM.