Attack on the Red City

In 0 ABY, Warlord Nuso Esva, a member of the species known to the native species of the Unknown Regions planet Quethold, the Quesoth, as the Storm-hairs, launched a campaign against the Galactic Empire. The goal of the operation was to draw Esva's archnemesis, Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo "Thrawn" of the Galactic Empire and Empire of the Hand, to the Imperial Candoras sector, where the Storm-hair's Eastern Fleet—one of his three fleets of equal strength that formed his battle fleet—and Chosen elite warrior force would finally destroy the Chiss so that Esva could continue his conquests and conquer the Galactic Empire. Although Thrawn traveled to Candoras' Poln system and Esva's forces engaged the senior captain's, the Galactic Empire's Death Squadron, Thrawn's Task Force Admonitor, and elements of the Rebel Alliance were able to shatter the warlord's Eastern Fleet and put him on the offensive.

At some point after the Candoras sector engagement, Esva attacked the Unknown Regions planet Oristrom, homeworld of the Stromma species. Studying the warlord's artwork, Thrawn was able to gain insight into his strategy and free Oristrom along with the other Stromma worlds, prompting the species to join the Chiss's Empire of the Hand. In 8 ABY, the Storm-hair allied himself with the ruler of Quethold's Red City, the ruling Queen of the Red, promising her that he would help kill the Queen of the White that was to succeed her in two years so the Red monarch would rule forever. In exchange, Esva gained access to the Quesoth Soldiers, the Queen's loyalty, and would obtain the ship manufacturing facilities in the White monarch's White City which he would use to manufacture starships that he could use to once again bring death to his enemies.

Meanwhile, now-Grand Admiral Thrawn and an Empire of the Hand council including Stromma Council Liaison Nyama, Voss Parck, Stormtrooper Commander Balkin, Gray Squadron Baron Soontir Fel, and , prepared for the final battle against Esva aboard the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Admonitor. The Chiss stated that Thrawn's forces had been blockading Quethold since they learnt Esva was on the planet, but the blockade had to be lifted so that the Grand Admiral could take care of other threats, and Balkin offered that the stormtroopers of the 501st Legion were ready to eliminate Esva. That statement prompted Nyama to explain the capabilities of the three Quesoth castes—the Circling, Midli, Workers and Soldiers—and mock Thrawn's plan for the attack: destroy the umbrella shields that protected the Red City with TIE interceptors and destroy the Chosen's heavy weaponry with Balkin's stormtroopers.

Considering such a strategy mad, Nyama withdrew all Stromma personnel from Imperial service, but not before translating several of the Queen of the Red's commands to the Soldiers in Quesoth Soldier Speak. The liaison also suggested tasking a disaffected Midli with recording the paintings Esva had brought to his residence in the Red City, the Dwelling of Guests building, making arrangements for that. In truth, Nyama was an agent of the Storm-hairs, and had suggested such a thing to manipulate Thrawn's strategy by sharing the paintings Esva had selected to confuse Thrawn. Midli bowlcarrier Trevik received that task from his family Jirvin, and carried it out in hopes of proving to his brother that the Queen of the Red was a willing ally of her warlord ally. The Grand Admiral knew of the plot, but followed it nonetheless, sending his stormtroopers on A-rack vehicles behind nine juggernauts to the Quesoth city's Setting Sun Avenue.

Thrawn's seven transports and nine empty juggernauts then landed on the city. Fel's Gray Squadron flew over the Red City, looking for holes in the umbrella shields through which his squadron could attack. As Gray Squadron flew over Juggernaut One, Esva's cannons opened fire while a hundred Quesoth Soldiers left their Worker homes and attacked the stormtroopers from behind. General Tasse reported that the Storm-hair forces had hit Juggernaut One nearly as hard as they had hit Nine while two thousand Quesoth attacked the juggernauts. The stormtroopers hid within three Worker residences located near a shield generator in hopes of destroying it, and drove back the attackers with an E-Web heavy repeating blaster operated by stormtroopers Shrinks, Lhagva, Bragger, and Line Lieutenant Dramos Sanjin.

Two thousand more Quesoth revealed themselves and moved in on the juggernauts along with several members of the Chosen, with another fifteen hundred Soldiers sieging the vehicles. Two shield projectors were destroyed shortly afterward, and Thrawn commanded his stormtroopers forces to continue their attack on the shield generator they were trying to destroy as part of Esva's script. However, the fourteenth Quesoth loudspeaker was located, and Fel was ordered to attack. The Chosen hit his left wing, which in fact was fake, and Fel continued to "crash" while Kres'ten'tarthi continued his siege on the laser cannons. Ejecting his wings and firing at several homes, the baron destroyed all loudspeakers but one, which Thrawn used to order the Soldiers to go to the Dwelling and protect Esva.

Realizing that the juggernauts were useless, Esva ordered his Quesoth ally into battle, where she would order her Soldiers to the Imperial transports. The monarch believed the Storm-hair wanted to go to the transports to flee Quethold with his Chosen and refused, as did Trevik. In fury, the warlord grabbed his blaster and threatened the Queen to cooperate if she wished to live; however, she did not, and died along with Circling Borosiv and several Workers. Ordering the late monarch's bowlcarrier to tell Thrawn that although Esva was dead, the warlord's followers were far more numerous than the Grand Admiral could imagine and would find the Chiss, and kill him, the Storm-hair leader accepted his fate. The remaining Chosen fired, the stormtroopers killed them, the Soldiers entered the Dwelling, and the Imperial forces murdered Esva.

In the aftermath of the attack—during which a stormtrooper died—on the Red City, Thrawn told Parck that one of the corpses within the Dwelling had been identified as Esva's and that after hearing Trevik's message, a bodyguard had been assigned to serve him, the Noghri assassin Rukh. The Grand Admiral also commanded the senior captain to travel to the Chaos Triangle, a location where the Admonitor, under Pack's command, would cleanup Esva's legacy. While the Chaos Triangle was cleansed, Thrawn began what he referred to as "victory," rebuilding the Galactic Empire.

The attack debuted in Timothy Zahn's novella Crisis of Faith, published in 2011 as part of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Zahn's 1991 novel Heir to the Empire.

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