Quesh war

Around the year 3642 BBY, the already strained Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire was on the verge of escalating into the full-blown Galactic War. Although the Treaty of Coruscant, which had brought an end to the Great Galactic War approximately a decade prior, was still technically in effect, the Empire began a series of military operations against the Republic, aiming to provoke them into open conflict. Simultaneously, the Republic increased its support for the Balmorran resistance on the Imperial-occupied planet of Balmorra, doing so more overtly. Upon discovering Quesh, a planet rich in the valuable chemical compound venenit queshaaga—more commonly known as Quesh venom—which could be processed into potent military adrenals, the Empire formulated a plan to sabotage the Republic's mining operations on the planet, hoping to elicit a forceful military response.

Upon their arrival on Quesh, Imperial strategists initially believed they could swiftly cripple the Republic's presence on the sparsely populated world with a concentrated attack. However, the Imperial Military managed to seize only a limited number of Quesh venom mines and a single processing facility. The Republic Military, along with the forces of the Three Families—a trio of Hutts who had broken away from the neutral Hutt Cartel to capitalize on Quesh and forge an alliance with the Republic—counterattacked, pushing back the Imperial advance. Moff Dracen, the Imperial commander, then ordered the conversion of the captured processing station and its associated warehouses into an Imperial Garrison. Moff Dracen, along with his key officers, including General Koloch, Major Faradin, and Colonel Drefin, established their command center within one of these storage warehouses, from which they directed the ongoing Imperial offensive. The Republic's defense of Quesh was placed under the leadership of the seasoned General Korvan and his subordinate Major Treeg, and the miner barracks at the Republic Operational Headquarters were transformed into a fully functional military base.

Initially, the Three Families coordinated their defensive efforts from their Palace, but a combination of factors prompted them to relocate their command center to a newly established war camp situated to the south. The Three Families Palace was largely inaccessible to Republic personnel due to the presence of sensitive information, and the addiction of the Hutt Portho Kaltemmic to adrenals had become a source of embarrassment for the other members of the Three Families, Jeelta Urdosh and Broga Masrii. Furthermore, the palace was not strategically ideal for operational command, leading to the establishment of the new war camp between Broga's Palace and the Republic Operational Headquarters. The Empire also established an outpost intended as a research base for Quesh venom, but Republic attacks and other setbacks significantly hindered their efforts. Consequently, the Hutt Cartel deployed forces to the outpost, transforming it into a staging area for Cartel battle droids rather than a research facility as the conflict progressed.

The Three Families were in the process of preparing an experimental adrenal formula for transport to Attis Station, and when Captain Franges intercepted their communications, he dispatched an Imperial unit to acquire samples of the formula. However, Franges, himself addicted to adrenals, ultimately kept the formulas for his own use. Sergeant Molvar and Alpha Squad were deployed to secure a location for a supply depot, intending to facilitate the movement of Imperial troops and equipment deeper into the nearby mines. They encountered Republic defenders who had been enhanced with powerful adrenals. The Republic soldiers decimated Molvar's squad, resulting in the deaths of all twelve soldiers, and Molvar survived only because he was rendered unconscious by a grenade blast. Severely wounded, Molvar sought assistance from other Imperial forces in the area, who were able to secure the depot site.

The Republic initiated the construction of a powerful shield generator, utilizing a large crane, to protect their mining operations. Sergeant [Darro], responsible for organizing raids against Republic mining operations, dispatched a contingent of soldiers to destroy the crane. However, due to inaccurate reconnaissance, his forces were overwhelmed by a significantly larger number of Republic defenders than anticipated. Consequently, he requested assistance from other Imperial units to destroy the crane, and its destruction severely impacted the Republic's mining capabilities. After the Republic's Manka-class Armored Transports began to disrupt Imperial mining activities, Moff Dracen launched Operation Tripwire, tasking Bravo Team with planting proximity explosives at checkpoints along a bridge on a walker route, specifically calibrated to disable the Republic walker convoy. However, Bravo Team was eliminated before completing their mission, forcing Moff Dracen to rely on other Imperial operatives to plant and detonate the explosives.

Early in the invasion, the Republic admiral Monk—who was secretly a spy working for the Sith Lord Darth Baras—thwarted an attack on outlying star systems orchestrated by Baras's former Sith Master, [Darth Vengean], a member of the Empire's ruling Dark Council. As part of Plan Zero, Baras and Vengean's scheme to reignite the war, Baras dispatched his apprentice to pursue Monk. The Sith Warrior located Monk at Fort Phalanx on Quesh. Baras's apprentice successfully assassinated Monk, although the admiral revealed that Baras had manipulated the entire situation to make Vengean appear incompetent in the eyes of the Dark Council.

Major Faradin proposed using false peace negotiations to lure Republic leaders into an ambush, but Moff Dracen opted to dispatch Imperial forces to destroy the specialized filters used by the Republic to maintain the air quality in their mines. Imperials attacked the Yuna Bore mine and destroyed the filters, depriving the Republic of a critical source of Quesh venom. Around that time, the Hutt Cartel dispatched the Hutt Graag to oversee Cartel forces on Quesh until the Three Families were eliminated. This was intended as a gesture of reconciliation with the Empire and a means of preserving their neutrality. However, Graag and his Cartel droid armies were unable to overcome the Three Families due to the Jedi defending their factories. This prompted Dracen to send Imperial forces to target the Republic's adrenal synthesis factory. Upon infiltrating the factory, Dracen's forces either destroyed the production equipment or eliminated the Selkath scientists working there, inflicting a significant financial blow to the Three Families.

Dracen also secured the allegiance of Portho Kaltemnic, and with the assistance of the Hutt and his Chevin adviser Norvaan Kel, the Empire either infiltrated the Three Families's palace with a small force or launched a direct assault on the structure. However, Jedi Master Berin Fraal had personally evacuated Broga from the palace before the Empire's attack, and Dracen's strike force only managed to kill Jeelta during the raid. The squad also eliminated Portho, as the Hutt had outlived his usefulness, and then transmitted the Three Families's data on processing adrenals to Moff Dracen. As part of his final offensive against the Republic and the Three Families, Dracen dispatched Imperial forces to hunt down Master Fraal and Broga at the Quesh Venom Refinery.

Dracen's forces killed Fraal but spared Broga, as the Hutt agreed to collaborate with the Empire.

Broga's loyalty to the Empire proved to be short-lived, and he rejoined the Republic's side shortly after his release. In response, Moff Dracen ordered a siege of Broga's palace, which resulted in its capture. A furious Broga was forced to command the Three Families's remaining forces from their war camp while the Moff established his personal fortress within the palace.

Senior Field Agent Suria of the Republic Strategic Information Service, the Republic's covert intelligence agency, was assigned to facilitate the defection of Doctor Orlian, a key scientist at the Empire's Quesh venom processing lab. Suria dispatched Agent [Meldo] undercover into the factory to manage the operation, but when he failed to check in at two consecutive intervals, Suria sent another Republic operative to disable the Imperial facility's security station and meet with Meldo at a designated rendezvous point. It was discovered that Meldo had been unable to respond due to increased Imperial security measures, but Meldo decided to capitalize on the operative's presence to extract Orlian. The operative successfully extracted the scientist, despite an attempt by an Imperial Captain Jesh and his security team to intercept them, and Meldo relocated Orlian to one of the SIS's safe houses.

Gallia, the foreman of a Republic mining crew, was instructed by General Korvan to tunnel beneath a nearby Imperial base, enabling the Republic to launch an attack from below. However, the crew's drill malfunctioned. To obtain replacement parts for the drill, Republic forces raided an Imperial mining operation, allowing Gallia to proceed with the tunneling plan. When the Ithorian Jedi Goonawaro discovered that the Imperial method of extracting Quesh venom—excavating massive pits to access the chemical—was releasing toxic gas into the atmosphere, he sought assistance from General Korvan's forces to plant explosives on Imperial storage tanks, aiming to disrupt the Empire's production.

Lieutenant Meric identified Imperial activity on the rooftops of several captured Republic factories. When the soldiers he dispatched to investigate failed to return, additional forces stormed the roofs of the factories and successfully prevented Imperial war droids from detonating explosives that would have destroyed the structures.

Republic Major Donovan deployed the Safecrackers, a platoon within the Republic Special Forces Division specializing in assaulting enemy bunkers, on a mission to raid an Imperial bunker. However, the mission went awry, and the platoon became trapped. The head of Special Forces, General Elin Garza, dispatched the elite Havoc Squad to assist Donovan in the rescue operation. Havoc attacked an Imperial command bunker to divert enemy forces away from the Safecrackers. Despite facing overwhelming numbers of Imperial forces in the command bunker, Havoc Squad managed to prevail and create a sufficient distraction for Lieutenant [Coria] to lead the remaining Safecrackers back to Republic lines.

A Republic privateer named Captain Ozzik, who had been supplying combat meds and adrenals to anti-Imperial organizations in the Outer Rim Territories, found himself stranded on Quesh when the Imperial admiral Harridax Kirill, known as the Voidwolf, attacked Ozzik's convoy with turbolasers. Trapped within the hangar typically used by his convoy, Ozzik transmitted a distress signal that was intercepted by a smuggler employed by Senator [Bevera Dodonna]. The smuggler's crew came to the privateer's rescue. After extracting Ozzik, the smuggler destroyed the Voidwolf's Planetary Sensor Station, which was identifying starships for targeting by the Imperial turbolasers, enabling Ozzik's convoy to escape Quesh.

As the war intensified across the galaxy, Darth Baras—newly appointed to Vengean's seat on the Dark Council—once again dispatched his apprentice to Quesh to bolster the Imperial offensive. Commander [Ollien] discovered a Republic strike force attempting to detonate a series of caverns beneath an Imperial command center. The Sith located Captain Trey-yen and his men just as they completed the installation of the explosives. However, Trey-yen's attempts to detonate the explosives failed, and the warrior eliminated the Republic strike team—only to be contacted by Baras's other apprentice, Lord Draahg. Draahg revealed that Trey-yen had been sent by one of Baras's Republic informants, and the entire operation was a trap designed for Baras's first apprentice. Draahg promptly detonated the explosives, but the Sith barely managed to escape the collapsing caverns and survive.

The Quesh War is a prominent feature in the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic, developed by BioWare and LucasArts. The details of the War are elaborated upon throughout the in-game Codex, as well as the Imperial and Republic world and class missions. All missions are designed to be completed by groups of players, and any class can undertake both the world missions and side missions. Consequently, this article refers to the player characters in each quest as a group of Imperial or Republic operatives, and assumes that each faction completes their respective missions in accordance with their respective moral alignments. However, during the Imperial mission "Quesh Showdown," players have the option to kill Broga the Hutt, earning dark side points. Despite this choice, Broga appears throughout the Republic missions, which occur after the Imperial missions, leading to the assumption that the decision to spare Broga, earning light side points, is the canonical outcome.