Da'Gara, holding the rank of Prefect, was a male Yuuzhan Vong who played a crucial role within the Praetorite Vong. This group served as the initial wave, securing a foothold for their people in the galaxy. During the invasion, he held command of a Koros-Strohna worldship, which had made its way to the galaxy. The agent of the Yuuzhan Vong, Yomin Carr, worked to guarantee that the Koros-Strohna's arrival at Helska IV, a planet located in the Outer Rim Territories, remained unseen by disabling the scientists on the nearby planet Belkadan. This allowed Da'Gara to secretly establish a base on Helska.
However, Danni Quee, along with other scientists, managed to escape and discover the base. As the forces of the Yuuzhan Vong prefect moved to engage the scientist's shuttle, Quee attempted to flee, leading the Yuuzhan Vong to shoot down her vessel. It ultimately crashed on Helska. Carr considered her worthy, so Da'Gara chose not to kill Quee. He treated her with respect and without dishonor, opting instead to offer her as a sacrifice to the Praetorite Vong's yammosk, a creature responsible for the telepathic coordination of Da'Gara's forces. After New Republic starfighters engaged Yuuzhan Vong yorik-et starfighters over the prefect's base, with the New Republic ultimately being destroyed or fleeing, Da'Gara destroyed the nearby planet Sernpidal by pulling one of its moons into it, because he believed that Sernpidal was the largest threat to his forces.
The planet suffered complete annihilation. While the yammosk deployed four battle groups to pursue a refugee convoy that escaped Sernpidal's destruction, a New Republic task force attacked the prefect's base. The prefect and the yammosk linked their minds and commanded their forces together. The yammosk used its telepathic abilities to coordinate numerous yorik-et fighters during the defense of the Yuuzhan Vong base. Nevertheless, the New Republic's shieldships harnessed the energy from the Helska system's sun to vaporize the icy surface of Helska IV by directing the star's energy at the planet. This resulted in the deaths of Da'Gara and all of his warriors.
Da'Gara was a male Yuuzhan Vong who dedicated himself to the empire of his species. During his training to become a prefect, Da'Gara was involved in several breakings, a form of torture used by the Yuuzhan Vong. This involved mentally degrading a victim to the point of incapacitation, making them unable to resist, and then executing them. This warrior of the Yuuzhan Vong rose to the rank of prefect and became an important member of the Praetorite Vong. This group was the advance force for the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion of the galaxy, which the Yuuzhan Vong empire aimed to conquer.
Nom Anor, a Yuuzhan Vong executor, provided the Praetorite Vong with a yammosk – a telepathic creature capable of coordinating Yuuzhan Vong forces during battle – without proper authorization. This was done to enable Da'Gara to further his invasion plans. In 29 BBY, Quoreal, the Supreme Overlord and ruler of the Yuuzhan Vong, was executed by Shimrra Jamaane, who was a contender to succeed Quoreal. Although the Praetorite Vong and Prefect Da'Gara pledged their loyalty to Jamaane, who took Quoreal's place, their allegiance to the Supreme Overlord was a deception to conceal the prefect's invasion plans.
In 25 ABY, while Da'Gara's forces were traveling across the galaxies before entering their target galaxy, Anor formed an alliance with the Mandalorians, a people from the galaxy that the Yuuzhan Vong sought to conquer. The executor sent Da'Gara a report detailing the Mandalorians' capabilities eight weeks before the Praetorite Vong reached the galaxy. As the Koros-Strohna worldship of the prefect journeyed towards Helska IV, an ice planet located in the Outer Rim Territories, a Yuuzhan Vong agent and warrior known as Yomin Carr ensured that the worldship's arrival remained unnoticed. To achieve this, he incapacitated the majority of the scientists stationed at the ExGal-4 station on Belkadan, a planet also located in the Outer Rim Territories.
While Carr was causing havoc on Belkadan, Da'Gara and one of his servants, Tu Shoolb, discussed the possibility of the scientists spotting them. Shoolb suggested that accelerating their worldship's speed using its dovin basals, living organisms that propelled worldships, would alert those watching. The prefect inquired if Shoolb doubted Carr's ability to complete his mission, prompting an apology from Shoolb, who then accelerated Da'Gara's worldship. The prefect briefly considered reversing his command but ultimately decided against it, eager to reach his destination.
Upon arrival, the yammosk of the Praetorite Vong aided in landing the worldship on Helska IV. It used its single tooth to submerge the Koros-Strohna beneath the planet's icy surface and created an energy field around the world. The prefect then donned an ooglith cloaker, a creature that shielded his body from Helska's atmosphere (which lacked oxygen and would be lethal to Da'Gara), and a gnullith creature, which allowed the prefect to breathe on the planet. Following this, the prefect's warriors constructed a base using the worldship.
After Carr incapacitated the scientists on Belkadan, he used a living communicator called a villip to communicate with Da'Gara. The agent reported that he had begun terraforming Belkadan for the Yuuzhan Vong's purposes and that it would be ready for destruction within a few days. He also informed Da'Gara about Danni Quee, one of the scientists whom Carr believed was worthy of being sacrificed to the Yuuzhan Vong. The prefect agreed to honor the agent's request, intending to sacrifice her to the yammosk instead of killing her dishonorably. However, Quee and a group of scientists managed to escape, using a Spacecaster-class shuttle to reach Helska.
The Yuuzhan Vong prefect dispatched hundreds of his yorik-et starfighters, also known as coralskippers, to intercept the shuttle. The coralskippers launched a villip at the Spacecaster, which relayed a message from Da'Gara to the scientists. The prefect welcomed them to Helska and invited them to his base. However, when they attempted to flee, the yorik-et fighters attacked the shuttle, causing it to crash on the planet below.
All of the scientists except Quee and Bensin Tomri survived, and the Yuuzhan Vong prefect killed the latter by plunging his hand into the other's throat. Quee was taken to Da'Gara's worldship, where the prefect spoke with her. He emphasized the great honor Carr had bestowed upon her by deeming her worthy and then pushed her into the water below the worldship, joining her. Shortly afterward, Gara communicated with Anor through a villip. The prefect reported that Carr had terraformed Belkadan and was prepared to utilize ExGal-4's visual scopes to their advantage. Da'Gara and the executor agreed that the greatest threat to the discovery of the prefect's forces was Sernpidal, a planet in the Julevian system. Da'Gara suggested using Yo'gand's Core – where a gravity manipulating dovin basal was used to crash a planet's moon into itself – to obliterate the planet.
Following Da'Gara's conversation with Anor, a squadron of starfighters from the New Republic, the galaxy's dominant power, engaged several of the prefect's coralskippers. The members of the squadron, Jedi Knights of the New Republic, were shot down, with only two managing to escape. One of the starfighters, piloted by Miko Reglia, crashed on Helska, and Da'Gara's warriors captured the Jedi, imprisoning him. Da'Gara brought Reglia before Quee, placing a tizowyrm in his ear to understand how to speak in the other's language, Basic. He identified the Jedi as unworthy as part of Reglia's mental breaking.
Gara then reported to Anor, informing the executor about the escape of the two starfighters and asserting that they would not get far, as several grutchins – insectoid Yuuzhan Vong creatures that tore through starships – were attached to the vessels. He shared his plans to sacrifice Reglia to the yammosk after he was broken, and that a second worldship was scheduled to join his on Helska that day, with a third arriving within a week. In response, the executor cautioned him to prepare for a significant New Republic attack.
Reglia and Quee escaped their confinement and arrived at a large chamber where Da'Gara was present. Reglia, having taken an amphistaff melee weapon from one of his captors, charged at the prefect, who evaded the attack and initiated his own. He launched goo at the Jedi, which paralyzed him. The prefect invited Quee to a small alcove, allowing her to witness the arrival of the second worldship, commanded by Prefect Ma'Shraid. The scientist and the Jedi, along with most of Da'Gara and Ma'Shraid's warriors, then joined the yammosk. Da'Gara did likewise later.
The prefect merged his mind with that of the yammosk, communicating with his troops through the war coordinator. He spoke of the zhaetor-shae of the Praetorite Vong – the faction's glory – about his forces' victory in their skirmish with the New Republic, and Shraid, whose forces then joined the gathering. The prefects delivered several speeches, and Reglia was brought before the yammosk, who devoured the Jedi. After the sacrifice, the warriors departed the gathering, and Da'Gara once again merged with the yammosk before speaking with Anor.
He reported that Sernpidal had been utterly destroyed and that the yammosk had dispatched four battle groups to pursue a refugee convoy fleeing the planet to the next world before the pair called for the release of the Yuuzhan Vong's ferocity in their language. After the convoy led the four battle groups to the planet of Dubrillion and the subsequent engagement that ended with the Yuuzhan Vong's defeat, Da'Gara, Shraid, and the commander of the third worldship, Prefect Dooje Brolo, discussed their plans. They agreed that after the New Republic attacked their forces at Helska, they would conquer Dubrillion and its sister planet, Destrillion, and turn one of them into their second base.
The New Republic launched an attack on Helska shortly afterward, attacking with a large force led by the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Rejuvenator. The Jedi Jaina and Jacen Solo used the carrier vessel Merry Miner and an iceborer vessel, used to mine ice planets, to open Helska's crust to let the New Republic forces attack Da'Gara's base. The prefect's coralskippers detected the Jedi and attacked them, with Jacen going to the world's surface to rescue Quee. While Da'Gara's warriors fought Jacen and killed Reglia, the Rejuvenator and its complement arrived. The yammosk sent a small group of coralskippers to confront the New Republic forces and bring them closer to a much larger force of Yuuzhan Vong starfighters.
The war coordinator coordinated the Yuuzhan Vong forces in the battle, during which the enemy forces retreated. They returned with a smaller task force, and Da'Gara rushed to join the yammosk. As the force included shieldships, capable of shielding ships from a star, the prefect was worried that his enemies would try to destroy the war coordinator's field protecting the planet and the dovin basals on the world; however, as the war coordinator was confident that they would easily repel the enemy force, Da'Gara calmed himself, hoping that he would be able keep Quee—who had escaped—after the battle. The New Republic shieldships, however, used the Helskan sun's energy to evaporate Helska's ice. As Da'Gara's coralskippers destroyed enemy forces, the icy planet was shattered. All on the surface, including Da'Gara, were killed. Anor later tried to contact the late prefect and Carr, but failed to do so.
Da'Gara's defeat – which Nas Choka, the Yuuzhan Vong Supreme Commander, considered a miscalculation – brought disgrace upon Anor, as the executor had aided the prefect. Shimrra deemed Da'Gara's actions at Helska blasphemous, believing that they had only earned the prefect and his warriors ice graves on Helska's remains. Ultimately, the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion concluded with their surrender.
Officer and strong Yuuzhan Vong warrior Prefect Da'Gara was resourceful and astute. He was a model member of the Yuuzhan Vong warrior caste. The prefect was fanatical and ruthless, thinking independently and displaying brutal efficiency while adhering to the commands of the Yuuzhan Vong warmaster, the leader of the Yuuzhan Vong's military forces. He almost changed his mind regarding his order to Tu Shoolb, but his eagerness to begin operations on Helska prevented him from doing so. Upon learning that Carr deemed Quee worthy, he entertained the possibility of converting the scientist into a Yuuzhan Vong warrior. However, Carr believed that this would be impossible due to Quee's resistance, and Da'Gara agreed to perform a worthy sacrifice to the yammosk.
The prefect did not want the agent to die on Belkadan, as Carr had been successful on Belkadan. Ambitious, Prefect Da'Gara aspired to lead the Praetorite Vong's conquest of the galaxy before the main invasion force arrived. When communicating with Quee's scientists through a villip, he instructed them to either follow his coralskippers to Helska or die and have their "honor of gift" from Yun-Yammka – the Yuuzhan Vong god of war – taken away from them. The prefect assured Quee that she would experience the glory of the Praetorite Vog, promising that, whether she was converted or killed, he would make Yun-Yammka happier.
In contrast to Anor's assessment, Da'Gara asserted that the New Republic starfighters' escape would not pose a problem, assuring the executor that they would not get far. He expressed regret that the region of the galaxy surrounding Helska IV was sparsely populated, as this displeased him. Da'Gara consistently referred to Reglia as unworthy and used Quee against the Jedi as part of his breaking. The prefect had a bald head with tattoos, a broken nose, and black eyes.
Da'Gara was proficient in melee combat and combat with tsaisis, Yuuzhan Vong batons. He was a native speaker of the Yuuzhan Vong language and could speak Basic with the aid of a tizowyrm. Although Quee found the prefect's Basic sentence structure terrible and noted that he stuttered over every word, he eventually achieved fluency in the language, which surprised Quee.
The prefect possessed a coufee dagger, several villip communicators, and a worldship. He wore vonduun crab armor and wielded an amphistaff.
Prefect Da'Gara made his debut in the 1999 novel Vector Prime, penned by R. A. Salvatore as the inaugural installment in the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order novel series. James Luceno's 2000 novel The New Jedi Order: Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial mistakenly spells Da'Gara as "Da'gara."
The 2002 sourcebook The New Jedi Order Sourcebook, published by Wizards of the Coast for use with the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, establishes that Da'Gara was the leader of the Praetorite Vong. Galaxy of Intrigue, another Wizards of the Coast sourcebook for use with the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, states that a high prefect led the advance force. However, the latter sourcebook also states that Da'Gara was the leader of the Praetorite Vong. This articles assumes that Da'Gara was not the Praetorite Vong's leader.