June 2062
California, America
(A/N: Keith's truck crash happens in a plain instead of next to a cliff in this timeline.)
By pure coincidence, Keith McMillan's truck happens to go off the road after being struck by the RPG at the same time a giant, fire-stricken, torn and mangled ship appears in a flash out of nowhere and collides with the ground hard right next to Keith's truck, the edge of the mighty ship barely two feet away from the edge of his truck.

His daughter, Arnett, screams for her Papa, but he doesn't hear her. He's hurt, stuck in the broken cab of the upside down truck, wondering if he's going to die or not. He's too busy thinking about it that he doesn't notice a figure walk up to the side of the upside-down door. Keith hears something turn on, a humming sound, and then the sound of things being torn in half like it was struck with some sort of laser. He turns his head, just in turn to see a cloaked person.. he couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl.. reach in and pull him out. From what he could see of it, he could tell that it was human, skinny, 5' 11'' tall, wearing a torn black vest of some sort with equally torn gray sleeves as well as torn black pants of some kind.. he could tell they weren't jeans.. and some kind of black shoes. It was Caucasian, from what he could see of the human's skin underneath the torn clothing. Its cloak was torn just below the neckline, cleanly across. Keith then noticed more, peculiar details. Underneath the clothing were a lot of scar lines, way more than he had normally seen on a person. Also, the person had a large cut on its left arm, and blood was dripping out of it. It still held something in its left hand, a green blade with a sliver handle. And then there were the eyes.. two yellow and violet eyes staring back at him. It was a bit creepy, to be sure.. but since it saved him, Keith wasn't complaining.

He now hears the screams of his daughter as he somehow finds the strength to get up despite the damage to him. "Save her.." he gasps and the figure nods, jumping up into the air, over the heads of Arnett and her two traveling companions, and lands in between them and the three men approaching them. He then notices one more thing, one that makes his eyes go wide. Something blue and glowing emits through the ripped fabric on its backside. He can hardly comprehend what he is seeing. This human has stigma? And it came from space?! What the hell is going on!

The same yellow and violet eyes stare dead into the three men, causing two of them to shake with fear.

"What the hell? Who is that?!"
"Who cares! It's wounded! Let's put it out of its misery!"

One of the men fires a few bullets in the figure's direction, but the figure, despite the gash in its left arm, raises its blade and deflects every single one of the bullets, reflecting the last one right back into the heart of the man who shot at it. He falls to the ground, dead in a instant, and the two other men are shocked by it.

"What the hell..?" one of the girls behind it says. "It just deflected all of them! Even with its arm hurt!"
"Is it using a Volt Weapon?" the other one asked. Then, the three girls notice the blue glowing light emitting from its body. Their eyes go wide, with shock. "No way? Stigma?!" the first one shouts. "How?! It's not like any Pandora I've ever seen!" says the second one, just as the figure reaches out with one hand and pulls it back toward him. One of the remaining two men is instantly propelled forward, straight at the creepy figure, screaming like a little girl, before the figure slashed him down the middle and he splits into two parts, dead instantly. Keith had made it up the slope just in time to watch the figure cut the man in half. His eyes only widened with it. That's thing a monster!

The last guy is screaming with fear, desperately trying to open the locked door of his vehicle, as the figure steps towards him, not saying a word, just staring. "Help! Help me! Please! I don't want to die!" But, the figure pays his cries no heed as it simply decapitates the man right in front of Arnett, Keith, and their two traveling companions.

The green blade disappears after it slays the man, and the figure turns back towards the four before walking back to the four of them. The figure takes off its cloak, and what's underneath it makes all of them gasp in shock. The figure is a boy, apparently a teenager, with many cuts and bruises on his face, and blood trickling down his cheeks. His dirty blonde hair has blood matted on top of some of it, and a few scar lines are seen on his forehead and along his neck. Keith is the first to speak. "Thank you, kind man.. for saving me, my daughter, and our two friends.."

The boy only had time to mutter a few words, "No problem. My duty calls me to do so.." before he passed out right in front of the four of them. Arnett's screams as he falls are the last thing he hears.

A few days later..
Cameron Spears slowly opened his eyes, his head throbbing with pain, half expecting to be one with the force. Instead, he's in a hospital room, white everywhere, in an unfamiliar location. His first instinct is get up and move, but a familiar voice from across the room stops him.

"I wouldn't do what your thinking if I were you. You took a beating from that crash. Crazy you were even able to kill those bastards despite your injuries" the man from earlier speaks up. "The name's Keith Mcmillan. My daughter Arnett has been by your side ever since you saved her." Cameron turns his head to the side after regaining enough sensitivity to realize someone was touching his right hand. Sure enough, the girl from before, Arnett, is sitting in the chair next to him, holding his hand. He then also notices Abyss in the corner, sighing with relief. "Knew you were a fighter, General" the droid says. "You do not know how much time I spent between 8 days ago and now, trying to figure out how I was going to tell General Grievous that I let his adopted son die if I ever got back to the C.I.S."

Cameron then speaks. "So.. the ship is totaled then?" he asks, causing Arnett to look at him and smile, then look at the droid.

"Afraid so, sir. A couple magnaguards, a few security droids, a couple hundred MTTs, a couple squads of vulture droids, two AATs, some commando droids, as well as a couple of Dwarf Spider Droids, Crab Droids, a few hundred deactivated battle droids, a few dozen rocket Super Battle Droids and a couple dozen Aqua Droids.. was all that survived, plus at least two hundred and fifty droids in need of repairs and enough provisions to sustain us droids for a few decades. We were able to salvage enough hardware from the ship that we should be able to set up a functioning command center for what has basically become an isolated garrison on a remote planet. We're trying as best as we can to get the communications system back up.. apparently it only was forced to shut down, not completely destroyed in the crash." Cameron had tears in his eyes after hearing that. "..all of those veterans.. my men.. all gone.." he weeped, sobbing for a little bit before regaining the serious look he had 8 days ago before passing out. "No matter. We'll make sure their deaths weren't in vain, by seeing if we can either manage to return to the C.I.S before the Republic finds us.. or fight whatever we have to face on this planet for the time being."

Keith spoke up. "You mean the Novas?" he asked. Cameron and Abyss both looked at him, confused. Keith then smacked himself. "Dang it. Forgot that you both weren't from here. The Novas are these huge monstrous things that come from another world.. modern militaries on our planet can't even stop these things. They don't last very long on this planet, for some reason.. but they attack civilians for no reason and when their time runs out, they explode, releasing energy so great that it leveled entire cities. Millions of lives gone.. in an instant."

Cameron looked shocked, then looked at Abyss. The droid was quiet, apparently thinking about the situation. "Well then, old buddy.." Cameron said to Abyss, and the droid looked at him. Arnett also looked at him. "..guess we found something to fight once I get out of here, whenever those things to poke their heads around again."

Just then, the door opened, and in stepped a man entirely unfamiliar to Cameron and Abyss, but one that Arnett and Keith definitely recognized. "My word.. Gengo Aoi himself! The creator of Pandora!" Keith exclaimed. Cameron just studied the white haired old man that stood in the room with him and the others in there, staring, with Gengo staring back at him. Finally, Gengo spoke up in a friendly manner. "Guess I finally am able to meet 'The Cloaked Bulldozer' as the media describes you.. General Cameron Spears, am I correct?"

Cameron nodded. "I must admit, for a boy your age, you're quite an abnormal human, even if you come from another galaxy altogether" Gengo continued. "And although the kind young lady next to you is equally special given that she has an 80% compatibility rate.. the main reason I came here is you. More specifically, that condition on your back."

Cameron immediately knew what Gengo was talking about. "Oh.. you mean those things on my back? I've been wondering about them for a long time.. my biological dad, until he passed away a few years ago, always said it was something unique and special to you. Unless you like to say otherwise..?"

Gengo shook his head. "Not at all. You see, the things that allow Pandora to operate are stigmata, which are special tissues that allow Pandora to fight Novas. They are either created by reverse-engineering cells or are made from extracting tissue from the core of a defeated Nova. Sometimes, though, even those stigmata are inserted into Pandoras, some are just.. let's just say, born with it. The other point is that in order to fight a Nova, a Pandora has a Limiter partner, who is typically a male as Pandora are always female, and those limiters have to have an aptitude for Stigma. Both of these established concepts is why you are such an abnormality, and the fact no one, except my own daughter, ever had as many as 10 stigmata on their own body. Probably no one on this planet has 21 stigmata on their own body, displays a 95% compatibility rate, or displays an aptitude for stigmata as a limiter.. all at the same time."

Arnett's eyes went wide as she looked at the boy in the hospital bed next to her, still looking at Gengo. "So in short.." Cameron says. "..you want me, as well as probably the forces of the C.I.S I still have, to help you and the Pandora fight off the Nova, correct?"

Gengo nodded. It took Cameron only a few seconds before he muttered the next words.

"Fine then. I'll do it. Might as well have something to do while I'm stuck here."

And just like that, the strongest of the humans fighting the Nova made his choice. From that day forward, his life, already changed as it was, would change more.

To be continued..