Huk War The Huk War , also known as the Huk Wars or the Yam ' rii crisis , was a prolonged conflict waged between the Kaleesh of the planet Kalee and the Yam ' rii of the planet Huk . Details . Origins . 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 " . The Rise of General Grievous . 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 , and 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 . The Separatist Movement enters . 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 . 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 .