Cad Bane


 * "Cad Bane at your service. I'll take on any job... for the right price."
 * ―Cad BaneCad.jpg

Cad Bane, a Duros male, was the leading bounty hunter in the galaxy during the Clone Wars due to the death of Jango Fett at the Battle of Geonosis. He was known to have worked against the Jedi Order and Republic, even though bounty hunters have no alliance with any one fraction.

First Mission with the Separatists
During the War, Bane was hired by Darth Sidious to steal a Holocron from the Holocron Vault in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Bane successfully executed the heist with the assistance of the Clawdite Cato Parasitti, a shapeshifter.

Cad Bane managed to escape Coruscant with the stolen Holocron. Darth Sidious had Nute Gunray send a small fleet of Munificent-class star frigates to help Bane carry out his next assignment; To kidnap Jedi Master Bolla Ropal and have him combine the Holocron and the Kyber memory crystal, which was held by Ropal. Bane led a ground attack on the surface of Devaron and captured Ropal and the Kyber crystal. However, a fleet of Republic ships, led by Anakin Skywalker, came to Devaron and in the ensuing battle most frigates were destroyed, leaving only the frigate with Bane and Ropal onboard. Skywalker had his fleet destroy the hyperdrive of Bane's frigate, preventing him from going into hyperspace. After obtaining the Holocron from the Jedi Temple, Darth Sidious tasked Bane to kidnap numerous force sensitive children. After kidnapping the Rodian child Wee Dunn, Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano managed to arrest Bane. The two Jedi attempted to interrogate Bane, but Bane managed to escape.

Hunt for Ziro the Hutt
Bane would later be hired to break Ziro the Hutt out of Republic prison on Coruscant. Cad Bane and his crew of bounty hunters, along with a few droid enforcers, arrive at the Senate landing zone, where they meet a host of Senate Commandos, who are not happy with their unauthorized arrival and try to arrest him. However, three commandos are sniped by Aurra Sing from long-range and the rest of the bounty hunters overwhelm the members of the squad. A commando droid fools security into thinking that the Senate Commando squad had taken care of a group of protesters against the war before promptly taking their uniforms. Aurra Sing and the rest of the bounty hunters the meet the group on the landing platform. Later, Bane and his crew take out the rest of the senate commandos and then go down to the control panel room and subdue the droids there, leaving Robonino to get the power down. The bounty hunters then leave to "talk" to some senators. Suddenly, once all the senators are gathered, the bounty hunters surround and take them hostage. Senator Philo attempts to leave only to be shot by Bane in the back. He then communicates with Chancellor Palpatine, demanding the release of Ziro the Hutt from captivity. Palpatine refuses to do so. Unfortunately, Bane proves his point by locking down the entire building, severing all communication with the outside. He takes everyone's comlinks, but before he can search Padmé, who is holding Anakin's lightsaber in her sleeve, Bane notices Anakin in the upper levels. Bane shoots at him and then orders an IG-86 sentinel droid and Shahan Alama to get him.

Anakin manages to elude his pursuers and hot-wires a terminal to communicate with Palpatine. The Chancelloradvises Anakin to get to the central power core to contact for help. Anakin manages to disconnect and hide before the bounty hunters find him, and then uses a mind trick to convince Alama to check the other two floors. As the hunters split up, Anakin follows the IG-86 sentinel droid and manages to bash it into submission. Alama comes back down to check and finds the droid's mangled remains. Noticing no lightsaber slashes, he quickly figures out that Anakin isn't armed. He reports this to Bane, who sends Sing to assist Alama in the search.

Anakin, despite his efforts, would be captured by Cad Bane's team and taken to the rest of the senators. Bane was then finally able to convince the Chancellor to release Ziro, allowing Bane to rescue the Hutt and imprison him under the authority of the Hutt Clan.

Bane was once again hired by the Hutt crime families after Ziro escaped his prison with the help of singer Sy Snootles. Unbeknownst to Bane, the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Quinlan Vos were also after Ziro, hoping to recapture Ziro after escaping Prison. Bane eventually managed to track down Ziro to the planet Teth only to find him already dead, murdered by Snootles who had used him to find a holo-diary, recording the dealings of the Hutt families. After a brief battle, Bane once again managed to escape capture by the Jedi.

Escape from Coruscant Prison
At a certain point during the war Bane was apprehended by the Republic for his crimes and imprisoned in the Central Detention Centre. However, he merely allowed himself to be captured as part of his latest job. He had been hired by Moralo Eval, a criminal mastermind working for Count Dooku, to break him out of prison. Eval was highly involved in a Separatist plan to kidnap Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was also planning on recruiting Bane in his plan. Not long thereafter Eval became interested in recruiting Rako Hardeen, a bounty hunter, who was imprisoned for killing Obi-Wan Kenobi, after watching him fight with some of the inmates. Eval had Hardeen brought to his own cell to talk with him and introduced him to Bane, who had a strong dislike of Hardeen and was definitely not in for breaking Hardeen out as well and Eval had Hardeen brought back to his cell. Both Bane and Eval did not know that Hardeen was in fact Obi-Wan Kenobi in disguise only there to learn about Eval's plan. Bane had paid fellow bounty hunter Boba Fett, who was in the prison as well, to start a riot as a diversion for him and Eval to escape. Fett was succesful and Eval and Bane escaped in the ensuing chaos. Hardeen followed them into the hallways and although Bane was not in for it, he reluctantly let Hardeen come along as Eval thought he might be of use. Bane's plan was to escape the facility via the mortuary, but the lock of the mortuary doors had been changed and Bane was unable to open them. Hardeen, actually Kenobi, told his comrades to stand guard while he would figure it out and secretly used the Force to open the lock. The three quickly climbed into the coffins meant to send the victims of the riot to the cremation centre. The clones in the cremation centre found out that the people in the coffins were still alive. The trio quickly climbed out of the coffins. One of the clones tried to shoot Bane, who used another clone to shield himself from the blast, before disarming and killing the clone that shot with his own gun. Hardeen disarmed the third clone, but hestitated to kill him. The clone triggered the alarm before Bane executed him. Bane angrily asked Hardeen why he didn't take the shot, but Hardeen claimed that his blaster jammed. The trio proceeded to make their way to a landing platform with Bane shooting more guards in the process. They stole a police speeder and used it to fly to the docks, where they stole a cargo ship from a Quarren pilot which they used to escape Coruscant. Once in the air Bane hit Hardeen in the face for hestitating to shoot the clone in the cremation centre. Eval, however, was most pleased that Hardeen had come along and considered to involve him in his plan again.

Entering The Box
Moralo Eval, Rako Hardeen and Bane made it to Serenno, where they met Count Dooku. Both Bane and Hardeen demanded their payment, but instead Dooku asked them to take part in a specialbounty hunter tournament that could gain them a much larger payment. The two reluctantly accepted with Bane suspecting that it would be a deadly contest and that not all participants would survive. Bane then spotted the hat of fellow contestant Bulduga and asked the bounty hunter how he got it. Bulduga responded by drawing hisblaster pistol, but Bane was faster and shot Bulduga in the chest, killing him in front of his brother Onca. He then mockingly took Bulduga's hat and dropped his old hat on Bulduga's body. Shortly thereafter Dooku gathered the contestants for a briefing on the tournament. Dooku introduced the other candidates: Kiera Swan, Derrown, Sixtat, Jakoli, Embo, Twazzi, Onca, Sinrich andMantu. He then showed them "The Box", a floating cube like station that served as the tournament arena. He explained that five most skilled among the survivors would participate in a job that would pay very well, while any remaining survivors would be eliminated to protect this job. Eval proceeded to explain that The Box was designed by him to simulate some situations that might happen on the job and the bounty hunters had to hand in their weapons. They were then escorted to an elevator that led into The Box and the tournament started. The contestants found themselves in a room and Eval appeared on a screen to mention that the only rule during the contest was that there were no rules. Thereafter a hole in the floor opened, releasing lethal Dioxis gas. Platforms started to rise from the ground to escape the gas. Bane kicked Mantu off a platform to get on it. When the platforms started to rise too much towards the ceiling the group found themselves between getting crushed by the ceiling and a layer of Dioxis below them. Hardeen deduced that the way out of the room wasn't in the ceiling but was somewhere in the floor. Hardeen found out that there was a hole in the floor that led to a tunnel below the gasline and to another room. Bane and the others followed Hardeen's example and survived the first test without casualties. The tunnel led to a second room where Eval appeared on screen again and commented that the second test unlike the first would result in some casualties. Suddenly columns with electrified blades started to shove in and out the walls. Onca and Kiera Swan ended up impaled on the blades and Sinrich was killed by Embo. Hardeen discovered a pattern in the way the columns shoved in and out and noticed it led to a hole in the ceiling of the room. He showed Bane his discovery who told him to go to the hole. Bane and the others followed Hardeen in his climb and made it to the shaft in the ceiling that led to a third room. In the next room the group once again received instructions from Eval who told them to pass through his ray shield to switch it off with a button that was positioned behind the shield. Eval revealed a tube in the middle of the room. The tube contained a serum that allows the user to pass through the shield unharmed. It was however toxic to all but one of them. The ray shield appeared and started to close in on the group. After a while the floor became ray shielded as well, killing Jakoli and forcing the rest on a platform in the centre of the room. When Derrown wanted to take the serum Bane protested, but Hardeen told him to let Derrown take the serum as he was a Parwan and his blood could take the serum. When the ray shield closed in more and more the platform became smaller and smaller and Mantu was killed by the shield. Derrown was, however, able to inject the serum in his blood, pass through the shield and succesfully deactivate the shield in time, allowing the remaining contestants to proceed to the fourth and final challenge.

In the fourth room the group was positioned on a platform above a fiery pit. Eval appeared and informed them that this test was about sharpshooter skills. One of them had to hit a target that moved very fast across the back wall with a sniper rifle. Sixtat volunteered and hit the target twice. He missed the third however and as a result he fell into the flames. Hardeen then took the sniper rifle and made an attempt as well, succesfully hitting the target three times. Although Hardeen completed the task Eval moved the platform to separate Hardeen from the others. Dooku had noticed that Hardeen had been the cause of succes on every test and planned on putting Hardeen in charge of the mission rather than Eval. Eval wanted Hardeen to hit some more targets. Hardeen hit another four, but then the rifle was empty and Eval saw his chance to get rid of him. When he tried drop Hardeen in the flames, Bane used on of his wrist cables to prevent Hardeen from falling. Eval was angry with this, but Bane told him that if he wanted to kill Hardeen he should do it like a man in a fair fight. Dooku agreed and dropped Eval in the room to fight Hardeen face to face. Eval didn't play fair and used his remote control to activate a few traps in the room and sent in some probe droids to kill Hardeen. Nevertheless, Hardeen was able to defeat Eval eventually and Dooku ordered Hardeen to finish Eval off. Hardeen, being Kenobi in disguise and a Jedi, refused to kill Eval to Dooku's dissapointment. Dooku however congratulated the remaining bounty hunters for surviving the box and announced that the job was in fact to kidnap Supreme ChancellorPalpatine during the Festival of light on Naboo. He also announced that Bane would lead the mission.

Mission to Naboo
For all the time and planning that Dooku invested into the bounty hunters' kidnapping of Chancellor Palpatine, Bane and his comrades were unaware that their operation was simply a diversion for Dooku's real kidnapping attempt, which the count intended to carry out himself once the Jedi Order had been distracted with Bane's plan. Dooku thus traveled with Bane, the undercover Kenobi, and the other bounty hunters to Naboo aboard the Personal Luxury Yacht 3000 that Kenobi had purchased on Nal Hutta. Upon landing in the capital city of Theed, which was to host Chancellor Palpatine and the Festival of Light, Bane had his team target a warehouse so that it could serve as their base of operations, sending in Embo, Eval, and Derrown to dispatch the Naboo workers inside. Once his comrades had taken care of the majority of the workers, Bane killed the last one himself and gave the all-clear to Kenobi, Twazzi, and Dooku, with whom he entered the building. Laying out their plan for kidnapping Palpatine, Bane entrusted holographic devices to each of the other five bounty hunters with instructions on their role in the operation: Derrown would breach the ray shield that would be protecting the festival stage, where Palpatine would be speaking; Twazzi and Embo would impersonate guards protecting Palpatine; Eval would be the getaway driver for their quarry; and Kenobi would be the sniper to immobilize the Chancellor. Because the final part of the plan called for Senate Commando disguises, each of Bane's associates save for Eval was given a holographic disguise matrix, developed by Box competitor Sinrich, for the duration of the operation. After Bane sent his comrades to their positions around Theed, Dooku applauded his handling of the plan but advised him to keep an eye on "Hardeen," having become suspicious of the disguised Kenobi. Bane resolved to keep his eye on all of them, as each mercenary had to meet with success for the operation to succeed. The Festival of Light took place the next evening at the Theed Royal Palace, with Palpatine having arrived that day with a clone shock trooper security detail from the Coruscant Guard, along with Anakin Skywalker and Mace Windu on behalf of the Jedi Order. Before the festival began, Bane adopted the guise of a Neimoidian delegate using a holographic disguise matrix and infiltrated the audience on the main stage, where Palpatine was to preside over the ceremony. As the program began, Palpatine arrived with Queen Neeyutnee of Naboo, Senator Padmé Amidala, and other Naboo dignitaries, along with his security troupe, consisting of Skywalker, Windu, clone shock troopers, and Senate Commandos. With Palpatine delivering an address in celebration of Naboo's rich history, Skywalker, Windu, and their comrades failed to notice the disguised Bane amidst the stage audience. Just as Palpatine began the scheduled fireworks sequence, Derrown reached the shield generator on the east side of the stage and compromised the ray shield over the stage, setting off an explosion that interrupted the ceremony and knocked the Chancellor unconscious. As the audience panicked and scrambled for the exits, Windu ordered two Senate Commandos—the disguised Embo and Twazzi—to get the comatose Chancellor onto a Flash speeder. With Skywalker and Windu otherwise occupied, Embo placed a holographic disguise matrix emitter on Palpatine to disguise him as a Senate Commando; Twazzi then adopted the Chancellor's guise, with Embo escorting her to the Flash speeder as her Senate Commando guard. Thanks to Twazzi's switch with Palpatine, she and Embo were able to distract Skywalker and Windu long enough for Bane to reach Palpatine and bring him onto a second Flash speeder, this one piloted by Eval. Bane and Eval escaped with Palpatine before Skywalker and Windu could reach them, though the still-undercover Kenobi trailed them to the rendezvous point. Arriving at the abandoned plasma refinery where Dooku had agreed to meet them, Bane offloaded Palpatine, who had regained consciousness, and disembarked with Eval. Presently, Kenobi arrived aboard a speeder, stating that he had not wanted to be double-crossed again, as had been the case back on Nal Hutta.

In spite of the fact that "Hardeen" had not been scheduled to arrive until much later, his appearance was the least of Bane's worries: Dooku had failed to show up, leaving them with the Chancellor. When Eval questioned what they should do with Palpatine, Bane stated his intention to ransom him themselves, as someone would undoubtedly pay them for their important hostage. That decision earned Bane a confrontation from Kenobi, who abandoned his cover to protect the Chancellor. As a fight broke out, Bane knocked Kenobi backward and fired upon him, using his rocket boots to gain elevation over his opponent. Just as he did so, Kenobi brazenly jumped after him and grabbed onto his legs, forcing Bane back down before throwing him straight into Eval. Kenobi's victory was soon followed by the arrival of Skywalker and Windu, along with a squad of clone shock troopers, who rescued the Chancellor from the bounty hunters. Bane and Eval were taken into custody by the clone troopers, with Windu finally revealing the real identity of "Hardeen" to Bane. Furious with being deceived, Bane spat venom at Kenobi as he was escorted away, his work for Dooku going unpaid. The Jedi Order also foiled Dooku's subsequent attempt to kidnap Palpatine, with Skywalker and Kenobi defeating Dooku and forcing him to retreat from Naboo.