"General" comes from a swamp-like planet, full of volcanic activity.  The creatures of the planet survive these flashes of heat, ash, and heavier particulate matter, by either burying them selves in mud and slime, ablative scale armor, or as some the psionic "Fade".

    As a child having hatched from the communal egg pile, learned in the repeated chants of the nest mothers over the developing Egglings.  @$&*)}!& slithered into the slime pools of his homeworld.  Oddly the sky began to show flashes much like the volcanic tears thrown by the towering firestone vents. This though no earth trembles troubled the pool.  Down from the sky, a large block crashed into the very pool he was resting in.  As the block slid in to crush him, his litack gland flashed a Fade and the block passed through him, it was oddly full of black-armored creatures that he learned later was something called Marines.

    His fade completely expended, his lizard-like body returned and was caught in a backwash of water and slime dragged along and into the rear of the odd crumpling carrier.  A sudden flash and the rear of the block folded open and slammed down on him.. starting to crush him through the slime into the Jelly and slowly closer to the rootpads and hardness places.  He squirmed in desperation to get out from underneath and came close his head popped out but the ragged scales on his back caught as thin as they were. A series of the Marines poured out of the back, taking positions all around the Block.  One of these oddly bipedal Marines almost stepped on his nose as it took its place...
   The creature picked him up and stuck him in a pack; the eggling assumed for later consumption. Not even close to conceiving of the human's odd habit of turning beast-prey into nestlings called pets.. was fed.. was watered.. bit a klittonack Daddy called "nasty slime scorpion" that was hiding in the marines nest material..
Was adopted by Daddy when realized "little general" wasn't beast prey but thought predator.