The lore in the manual was entertaining as well; whoever wrote it was clearly having fun. All these years later I still clearly remember a quip from the parody religious prophecy in Appendix C: "And then, within the bowels of Arth¹ shall there once again be movement." Never fails to crack me up.

¹ The name of the planet that the player starts on.

lol! Me too! I remember the alien interaction dialog and this word.