Guerra Derida, a self-described "freedom fighter who steals," was a male Phindian, the brother of Paxxi and Terra Derida and the son of Duenna Derida. At some stage in his life, Guerra was enslaved and sent to work in the mines of the planet Bandomeer. After three years in the mines Guerra met aspiring Jedi Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi and he managed to help Obi-Wan escape with the help of Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn. The two Jedi then managed to free Guerra and the rest of the mine workers.
After these events Guerra stowed away on his brother Paxxi Derida's ship as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan boarded on their way to Gala. Paxxi, however, dumped fuel in order to force a detour to the planet Phindar and have the Jedi help bring down the Syndicat. Eventually, Guerra and the other rebels alerted the other Phindians of the fake shortages and ultimately finished the Syndicat.
After over three years of work in the deep-sea mines, Guerra was assigned the task of outfitting the recently captured Obi-Wan Kenobi for work. Over the next two days, the two became close friends despite Guerra's distrust of others. Obi-Wan persuaded Guerra to help investigate certain crates imprinted with the Offworld broken circle logo in the explosives room of the facility.
However, Obi-Wan's entrance into the room triggered a silent alarm, and Guerra "betrayed" Obi-Wan to the approaching Imbat guards. The next morning, when the guard's threw Obi-Wan overboard Guerra positioned a spun carbon tarp on the support struts of the platform. With the help of Qui-Gon Jinn, who had come to the deep-sea mines when as soon as he learned that Obi-Wan was imprisoned there, Obi-Wan landed on the tarp, and Guerra pulled him to safety. When Qui-Gon reached the pair, he deactivated the electro-collar that had been placed on Obi-Wan. However, before he could do the same for Guerra's, the two Jedi were forced to fight off more guards.
During the firefight, Guerra was grazed by blaster fire and he was forced to hide; Obi-Wan promised him that after reaching land he would find a way to deactivate the collars, Guerra noting that he trusted that Obi-Wan would keep his word. After the miners collars were deactivated, Guerra led them in revolt, abandoned the mine, and hid on his brother's transport, bound for the planet Phindar.
Guerra played an important part in liberating his homeworld of Phindar from the criminal organization named the Syndicat. He and his brother Paxxi, invented an anti-register device that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan used to break into the leader of the Syndicat, Baftu's vault. Eventually, Obi-wan made contact with Qui-gon via the Force, and together they started the Phindian revolution and in the battle that followed the anti-register was destroyed.
As Baftu attempted to escape on the Prince's ship, Guerra pointed out Baftu's cowardice to his guards. The guards then detained Baftu, and Guerra arrested him in the name of the Phindian people.
After Baftu's defeat, the two Jedi left Phindar for their original mission to Gala. Knowing that Phindar needed no more thieves, Guerra and Paxxi were left arguing over who would run for the new position of governor. Eventually, both Guerra and Paxxi became heads of large families on Phindar.
Guerra's personality was depicted as that of a lying thief, often uttering the words "Not so, I lie". Guerra was identical to his brother. Family meant a lot to Phindians, who were known to hug people, squeezing three times to show intense affection for each other.
Although he had an initially uncertain relationship with Obi-Wan Kenobi when they first met, he later stated that he regarded Obi-Wan as one of the few people he trusted, and was greatly grieved at the discovery that Obi-Wan's mind had been wiped. Yet he felt relieved when he saw that Obi-Wan had resisted the memory wipe all along.
Guerra was created by Jude Watson for the Jedi Apprentice series of young reader novels.
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Reader's Companion