The conflict lasted for generations as the greedy and technologically-superior insectoid Yam'rii overran neighboring planets (such as Abbaji and Tovarskl), ruthlessly colonizing them and plundering their wealth. The insatiable Yam'rii eventually attacked nearby Kalee, seeking to enslave the native Kaleesh. They captured millions of Kaleesh and sold them into slavery. Not ones to be oppressed, the Kaleesh rebelled and the two races soon became locked in violent combat. This led many Kaleesh to derogatorily refer to the Yam'rii as Huks, translating as "soulless bugs".
Out of this carnage arose two seemingly invincible Kaleesh warriors, the deadly Qymaen jai Sheelal and Ronderu lij Kummar. The two fought courageously together, butchering thousands of Yam'rii in countless campaigns, their reputations raising to the level of demigods.
Unfortunately, Ronderu lij Kummar eventually fell in battle against the Yam'rii on the beaches of Kalee, and a distraught Sheelal soon came to adopt the name "Grievous," surrounding himself with a legion of equally tortured handpicked "elite," known as the Izvoshra, and becoming an even more violent and rageful warlord. Leading the brigades of the kolkpravis fighting force, Grievous massacred large numbers of Yam'rii in revenge, finally driving them from Kalee.
His bloodlust and thirst for revenge did not end with the planetary retreat, and Grievous led his warriors on a campaign on the Yam'rii colony worlds, decimating both military and civilian targets. He came as far as Tovarskl, when the Yam'rii, using their connections with the Trade Federation, desperately petitioned the Republic for help.
The Senate inserted itself into the conflict and believed the Yam'rii's tall tales of the Kaleesh starting the conflict. Ruling on behalf of the Yam'rii, they dispatched a Jedi task force led by Masters T'chooka D'oon and Jmmaar to stop the war. The Republic leveled harsh sanctions and reparations against the Kaleesh for their aggression, ending the Huk War. Grievous, bred for battle, was forced to return to his family as the war ended.
After the war, because of he Republic's sanctions, Kalee descended into economic devastation. Grievous watched helplessly as his wives, offspring and fellow people starved, suffered and slowly died, his hatred for the Republic growing.
Having little choice, Grievous became an enforcer for the InterGalactic Banking Clan, which promised to help alleviate Kalee's plight in turn for his services. This arrangement lasted until Grievous learned that the Yam'rii went unpunished by the Republic while they desecrated Kaleesh burial grounds established on the colony worlds.
Around 29 BBY, Grievous broke his commitment to the IBC, and he and his Kaleesh elite boarded a troop shuttle, preparing to reinitiate the Huk War. Grievous's plans were aborted, however, when his shuttle was destroyed by an ion bomb, secretly planted by the Banking Clan and its Separatist allies. Grievous had to be reconstructed as a cyborg as a means of clinging to life.
Though the Huk War finally seemed over, the war's legacy was touched upon during the Clone Wars when Grievous returned to Tovarskl with his droid armies, and destroyed the Yam'rii populace, finishing what he had started years earlier.
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary
- The Story of General Grievous: Lord of War on Hyperspace
- "Unknown Soldier: The Story of General Grievous" — Star Wars Insider 86
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Visual Guide
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Clone Wars Campaign Guide
- The Essential Atlas
- Galaxy at War
- Star Wars: The Official Starships & Vehicles Collection 27
- Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide: Updated and Expanded