Steela Gerrera

Steela Gerrera was a human female resistance fighter devoted to liberating her homeworld of Onderon during the Clone Wars. A pragmatic soldier who took over from her more oratorical brother, Saw Gerrera, as leader of the Onderon rebels, the efforts of her movement, with assistance from the Jedi Order, saw the end of Separatist rule over the planet through their proxy, King Sanjay Rash, and the restoration of the benevolent King Ramsis Dendup. Tragically killed in the final battle against the Separatist Droid Army, Gerrera was mourned as a hero of her people.
==History==
===The Clone Wars===
====Battle of Onderon====
When Sanjay Rash supplanted Ramsis Dendup as King of Onderon and aligned with the Separatist Alliance at the start of the Clone Wars, Steela and a group of dissidents retreated to the wilderness, where they organized themselves into a guerrilla movement. Following an appeal by former Separatist Senator Lux Bonteri and her brother Saw to the Jedi High Council, Steela encountered the Council's envoy, composed of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Knight Anakin Skywalker, and their Padawans Jarik Shan and Ahsoka Tano, along with Clone Captain Rex. Though sceptical of the envoy as another foreign party intervening in Onderonian affairs, Steela brought them to the rebel camp, where the insurgents were trained on combat. Steela demonstrated herself as a talented sharpshooter, and after jointly eliminating a detachment of the Droid Army deployed to ambush the camp, the rebels infiltrated the capital of Iziz, posing as hunters and foragers.
As the rebels conducted hit-and-run attacks on droid patrols throughout the city, Steela observed that the raids fostered fear among the civilian population and urged to gain popular support instead. Heading a successful strike against the central power generators, Steela was recognized and elected as the leader of the resistance, much to the chagrin of her brother. Through a broadcast to the people, Steela expounded on the legitimacy their cause and denounced Rash and his Separatist allies, prompting the King to announce an execution of Dendup — which later included Saw, following an ill-fated attempt to rescue the former monarch. Recognizing how under-equipped the rebels were, Steela and her forces nevertheless managed to extricate the captives from the heavily-surrounded execution square, especially with the assistance of civilians and the Royal Militia, the latter of whom abandoned the Separatists and escaped to the Highlands alongside the resistance.
====Death====
Subsequently granted command as General by Dendup over the Royal Milita and rebels alike, Steela — after sharing a brief romantic moment with Bonteri — led the combined Onderonian forces in battle against the Separatist Droid Army. Near the end of the engagement, Saw shot down the last of enemy gunships, but the damaged unit careened out of control and towards a fleeing Dendup. Though Steela managed to save the king, she was trapped on a collapsing rock on the edge of a cliffside, broken loose by the impact, and while trying to jump to safety, was caught hanging from the cliff. Bonteri rushed to save her, but nearly fell off himself. Tano used the Force to float him to safety, but as she tried to do the same for Steela the downed gunship fired a laser blast through her left shoulder, breaking her concentration and causing her to inadvertently lose her grip on Steela. Shan likewise attempted to catch her with the Force, but was prevented from doing so by an attacking commando droid, resulting in Steela falling to her death.
===Legacy===
While Steela was valorized as a hero by Onderonians following her death, Saw grew cold and bitter, blaming himself for her death. In the subsequent reign of the Galactic Empire, Saw led his own band of insurrectionists known as the Partisans, infamous for their cruelty and disregard for the safety of civilians. During an investigation on Geonosis, Saw accidentally dropped a hologram projector of her, and it was recovered by Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger, who asked if the woman was Saw's sister. He angrily took the projector back, sadly responding afterwards that the image was all he had left of her to remind him.
==Appearances==
Category:Characters
Category:Star Wars Characters
Category:Galactic Republic
Category:Humans