Cad Bane/Legends

"I'm in control. I make the rules now."

- Cad Bane

Cad Bane was a male Duros bounty hunter from the planet Duro who earned a reputation as the galaxy's best, deadliest, and most fearsome mercenary during the Clone Wars. Though he worked for a number of clients, his loyalty was ultimately to credits&mdash;and by extension, the highest bidder. Bane employed a variety of weapons and allies to ensure that he always got his pay, and he became the leader in his line of work after fellow bounty hunter Jango Fett perished in the opening battle of the war. Bane's renown even attracted the attention of the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, who employed him numerous times for his own means. Bane also found a rival in the Separatist scientist Kul Teska, whose superweapon he hijacked a part of, leading Teska to forcibly retrieve the device from him on Ryloth. After being hired by the Hutts to break the Hutt crime lord Ziro Desilijic Tiure out of Republic custody on Coruscant, Bane formed a team of hunters to capture members of the Galactic Senate and force Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to free Ziro. Once he had liberated the Hutt crime lord from his prison and escaped from the Senate with his team, Bane disbanded his posse.

Later, under Darth Sidious's employ, Bane stole a Jedi holocron from the Jedi Temple to unlock the Kyber memory crystal, a repository of all recorded Force-sensitive infants in the galaxy. On Devaron, he then pilfered the crystal from Jedi Master Bolla Ropal, who sacrificed himself to protect its contents. When he was confronted by Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, on his command ship, Bane separated the pair and took Tano hostage, forcing Skywalker to unlock the crystal with the holocron. Escaping from the Jedi, Bane continued his work for Sidious by accepting the Sith Lord's next assignment of kidnapping four of the Force-sensitive infants listed in the crystal. Using his modified starfighter, the Xanadu Blood, Bane captured the younglings Zinn Toa and Wee Dunn and delivered them to Sidious's secret facility on Mustafar, but during his attempted abduction of the third child on Naboo, he was apprehended by Skywalker and Tano. After being forcefully interrogated by the Jedi, Bane lured Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu into a trap on Black Stall Station, his base of operations, and used the distraction to flee from their custody.

Early career
"Master Cad Bane, I presume. I've heard much about you. Who hasn't? The greatest hunter since Jango lost his head&hellip;"

- Davtokk

The Duros male Cad Bane lived during the last decades of the Galactic Republic and hailed from the planet Duro. He eventually became a bounty hunter, earning notoriety and a reputation as the galaxy's preeminent mercenary who operated solely for the financial reward of his missions. His renown ensured that he became feared and dreaded by his prey. Using a number of weapons and allies, Bane worked for the highest bidder, caring little for who employed him or the faction that his client represented, as long as he received his pay. His usual rate itself was quite considerable, and his allegiance to credits was so potent that if his quarry offered him a better fee, he had no qualms with turning on his original client. By the time Jango Fett&mdash;the bounty hunter considered to be the galaxy's best&mdash;perished in the opening battle of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY, Bane was something of a veteran in his line of work. With Fett out of the picture, Bane rose to be among the galaxy's most notorious, ruthless, and fearsome bounty hunters in operation during the war.

Bane utilized a number of locations as bases, from a base of operations in the Outer Rim's Rogue Antar system named Black Stall Station to a secret hideout on the planet Tatooine. He personally outfitted the former with several booby traps and a laser defense grid to stop his adversaries, countermeasures that no one was reportedly able to survive. Bane frequently worked with several "underworld dregs" in his operations; among their number was the shapeshifting Clawdite Cato Parasitti, a lethal assassin who shared his staunch loyalty to money. Parasitti subcontracted assignments for him and recruited extra help as he required. During the war, Bane made use of The Sleight of Hand, a Telgorn dropship he extensively modified himself, the ion cannon of which he used many a time to disable merchant cargo ships. Bane's numerous encounters with Jedi furthered his respect for them and their Force powers to a certain degree, though he was not intimidated by them. His work in the bounty hunting business earned him some powerful enemies, and a considerable price was placed on his head.

Deception on Kynachi
"Jedi, huh? My fee just went up. A lot.''" "''You will be compensated. Go to Kynachi immediately. I will contact you with further instructions."

- Cad Bane and Darth Sidious

Around the war's first year, Bane was residing in a shabby hotel room on the galactic capital of Coruscant. He was eventually contacted through his compact holoprojector by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, who hired him to pursue a Jedi-led clone trooper squad that was heading to conduct an investigation on the planet Kynachi regarding the origins of the recently destroyed Separatist warship Malevolence. Though he raised his fee due to the involvement of a Jedi, Bane accepted the assignment and immediately left for Kynachi. After bypassing the Trade Federation's blockade of the planet and arriving on the Federation-controlled world, Bane recruited a food vendor to identify any strangers in a town on the planet. He provided the vendor with a special comlink that overrode the Federation's frequency jammer, which disrupted communications on the planet. The vendor later contacted Bane in the hotel where the bounty hunter was staying and reported that three robed men&mdash;two of whom were carrying blaster rifles&mdash;and a Chiss youngling were headed with the local Lalo Gunn to her diner. The men and the Chiss were in fact three Republic clone troopers and the Jedi Padawan Nuru Kungurama, respectively, who had been stranded on Kynachi after their ship had crash-landed there due to sabotage. Complying with Sidious's latest instructions, Bane proceeded to the diner and staged an elaborate deception in order to manipulate the group's actions, summoning four BX-series droid commandos to fake a fight with him at Gunn's starship, the Hasty Harpy.

After the battle droids attacked Kungurama and the clones and were destroyed by the Republic squad, Bane pretended that he had been blinded by a luma grenade, and troopers CT-5177, nicknamed "Chatterbox," and Knuckles found him lying on the ground in front of the diner. The clones brought Bane into the building, where Kungurama, Dunn, and trooper CT-8863, nicknamed "Breaker," questioned him on his identity and business. Taking the risk of revealing to the trio that he was a bounty hunter in order to more effectively deceive them, Bane lied and stated that the droid commandos had been trying to arrest him and had opened fire on him when he had tried to run away. When Gunn asked after the reasons for his presence on Kynachi, Bane flatly replied that a job had brought him to the planet, but Gunn, unsatisfied with his vagueness, put one of the fallen droids' E-5 blaster rifles to his forehead and demanded to know how he had bypassed the Trade Federation's blockade.

Bane fictitiously stated that he had been hired to break someone out of the KynachTech Industries factory prison and that his client had provided him with a datatape of the facility's schematics and pass codes to get through the Federation blockade. His disclosures earned him freedom from the blaster on his forehead. However, Bane also truthfully reported that earlier he had seen the factory's droid guards escorting four Republic troopers and an unconscious Ring-Sol Ambase, Kungurama's Jedi Master, into the prison. Unbeknownst to the Republic squad, Ambase was the quarry whom Sidious had hired Bane to capture alive. With the scenario that Bane had provided, Kungurama, determined to rescue his Master, developed a plan to have Breaker build a new droid&mdash;using parts from the disabled droid commandos and the Genetech brain of Gunn's navigation-turned-waiter droid, Teejay, who had been destroyed in the droid ambush&mdash;to gain access to and break into the prison. This idea was, in fact, the exact plan Bane had intended for Kungurama to devise.

Bane accompanied Chatterbox, Knuckles, and Gunn as they reconnoitered the prison, and then took them to the Kynachi spaceport's Docking Bay 21 to check out his ship, The Sleight of Hand, which the group planned to use to escape from the planet and break through the Trade Federation blockade once they had rescued the prisoners from the KynachTech prison. After completing their mission, the four returned to Gunn's transport, where Breaker and Kungurama were assembling the new droid. The unit was successfully reactivated and was renamed "Cleaver." Bane proposed a risky plan to break into the prison and liberate the captives, and the group proceeded to put the stratagem into motion. With Kungurama, Gunn, the troopers, and a poncho-adorned Bane posing as prisoners and Cleaver acting as their droid captor, they were admitted into the facility. Upon entering the prison, the members of the squad dropped their disguises and confronted the facility's Techno Union overseer, Umbrag. As Kungurama cornered Umbrag and demanded information from him, the Overseer inadvertently caused a battle droid to fire its blaster rifle. At the sound of blaster fire, Bane drew his pistols and began to shoot at the nearest battle droids, sparking a chaotic firefight. With the others' attention focused on the battle, Bane was able to slip away and capture Ring-Sol Ambase, who had been taken prisoner by battle droids. Bane placed the comatose Ambase in a transparisteel stasis pod to keep him in his near-death condition.

Bane eventually returned to the prison with Ambase's lightsaber and found Kungurama, Gunn, and the troopers, who had driven Umbrag away and had been reunited with the rest of their clone squad. Bane continued to deceive the group, stating that he had been unsuccessful in finding his previous quarry. Although the clones did not trust him, the bounty hunter gave Ambase's lightsaber to Kungurama with the lie that it was all he had found of Ambase; Bane received Kungurama's thanks before departing, though he refused to give the Padawan his name. Bane used a gravsled taken from the KynachTech factory to transport Ambase's stasis pod and returned to The Sleight of Hand in Docking Bay 21, bringing Ambase's body onto the vessel. Departing from the planet, Bane used his pass codes to bypass several Republic Navy Star Destroyers that had arrived in orbit of the world. After evading the cruisers and activating his ship's automated pilot mode, Bane returned to the main cabin and contacted Sidious, to whom he reported his success. The Sith Lord was pleased with the result and told Bane to deliver Ambase to Bogg V, the fifth moon of the Bogden system, before severing the connection.

During The Sleight of Hand hyperspace trip to Bogg V, Bane passed the time by watching The Bounty Hunters' Guild's Greatest Hits: Volume VII, a collection of holorecorded assassinations compiled by the Bounty Hunters' Guild that featured the Guild's Trandoshan leader, Cradossk, and his son, Bossk. Bane also corrected a fluctuation in the Telgorn dropship's null quantum field generator and kept watch on Ambase's vital signs. When The Sleight of Hand exited hyperspace near the planet Bogden, Bane piloted his ship to the starship traffic–heavy Bogg V and obtained his landing coordinates from a satellite in orbit of the moon. Although his designated landing area&mdash;an unpopulated spot north of Mong'tar City&mdash;was empty save for a waiting Punworcca 116-class interstellar sloop, he spent the next two hours circling the vicinity to ensure that he was not being followed. Once he had confirmed as much, he touched down near the solar sailer and met with the Dark Acolyte Asajj Ventress, an agent of Sidious's associate, the Confederate Head of State Count Dooku. After showing Ventress how to operate Ambase's stasis pod, the monitor of which frequently built up with ice that required an ice pick to break, Bane handed the inert Ambase over to her and completed the transaction. He then received Sidious's next assignment from her and left for the planet Bilbringii to execute the job.

Theft from Kul Teska
"Bane? Ha, ha, ha. Forgive my surprise. I didn't think even you were foolish enough to steal from me.''" "''Pity you didn't go down with the ship, Teska."

- Kul Teska and Cad Bane exchange pleasantries on Ryloth

Using The Sleight of Hand, Bane hijacked the Gravitic Core of the gravitic polarization beam weapon manufactured by the Separatist scientist Kul Teska&mdash;a "competitor" of his&mdash;over the ice world Alzoc III. After stealing the crate containing the Core, Bane fled Teska's Munificent-class star frigate and left it to be hit by an explosion. He took The Sleight of Hand to the planet Ryloth, which had recently been liberated by the Grand Army of the Republic from the Confederacy. In the city of Resdin, Bane captured Clone Captain CC-7567 and Clone Sergeant CS-2207&mdash;nicknamed "Rex" and "Boomer," respectively&mdash;to assist him in his exploits. Bringing Rex and Boomer to a hangar and placing them in explosive-wired binders, Bane forced the clones to comply with his demands. As Separatist battle droids broke into the hangar, Rex and Boomer agreed to defend Bane's crate and take the cargo to his ship elsewhere on the planet. With the pair's promised cooperation, the bounty hunter released the links on the pair's handcuffs, allowing them to operate freely. Bane and his new accomplices defeated the attacking lines of B1 battle droids and B2 super battle droids. The clones succeeded in closing the main hangar door and several tunnels, halting the droids' advance.

When a Vulture droid starfighter broke through the main entrance and opened fire on the group, Bane offered some heavy artillery to the clones, and they used it to destroy the droid. Shortly thereafter, Separatist reinforcements appeared in the form of B1, B2, and sabotage droids, but with the arrival of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano&mdash;who had come to rescue the clones and grudgingly decided to assist the bounty hunter&mdash;Bane, Rex, and Boomer were able to defeat the droids. After the group had taken down a large tri-droid, Bane directed his blaster fire at the Jedi and clones. Skywalker rebounded the laser shots, causing the bounty hunter to lose his balance atop a platform and tumble to the ground; the Jedi then held Bane at lightsaber point. The bounty hunter's "bargaining chips" were rendered defunct when Skywalker severed the clones' binders. Rex and Boomer then disarmed Bane, though he kept an extra pistol hidden elsewhere. As explosions went off outside, Bane proposed The Sleight of Hand as a means of escape. With no other options, Skywalker took Bane up on his offer and sent Rex and Boomer to provide covering fire from an elevated position. Though unaware of the crate's contents, Skywalker and Tano were unwilling to let it fall into Separatist hands and forced Bane to carry the Core to his ship. En route to the Telgorn dropship, Skywalker, Tano, and Bane encountered numerous B1, B2, chameleon droids, and droidekas, but the Jedi were able to defeat all of them.

Along the way to The Sleight of Hand, Bane frequently grew tired from carrying the heavy weight of the Gravitic Core and stopped several times to rest behind larger crates scattered around the landscape, relying on the Jedi and clones to protect him from the enemy droids' fire. When the path was blocked by starship wreckage, Rex fired a rocket launcher at the rubble, and the Jedi and Bane climbed the debris. Skywalker and Tano jumped across a gap in their path and used the Force to collapse a fighter wing, enabling Bane to cross the divide with the Gravitic Core. When Skywalker, Tano, and Bane took a cliff-side path, they gradually moved beyond the clones' range and were forced to cope without their covering fire. After Skywalker and Tano had eliminated a thicket of B1, DSD1, sabotage, and destroyer droids in addition to a squad of LM-432 crab droids, Bane followed the pair to the ground and across a destroyed droid tank to an adjacent ridge. Arriving at The Sleight of Hand, Bane set his crate down and slowly retrieved his alternate pistol as Skywalker conferred with his Padawan. At that moment, some of the wreckage surrounding the dropship exploded. Although Skywalker and Tano were occupied with holding the debris in the air with the Force and were open targets for the bounty hunter, Bane's firing hand was hit by a piece of wreckage before he could take advantage of the Jedi's distraction and fire at them.

Teska himself blasted out of the wreckage and confronted the three, demanding that Bane hand over the Gravitic Core. Teska used a grappling hook to seize the crate, but Skywalker intervened and Force-pushed the device into Bane's ship. Before Bane could board The Sleight of Hand and escape with the crate, Tano trapped him under a slab of metal. As the Jedi and Teska engaged each other in a duel, Bane sneaked away and made his own escape from Ryloth. Although Teska fled with the Core and stole The Sleight of Hand, Bane later intervened during the Republic's siege of Teska's facility on the planet Behpour. While Teska's gravitic beam powered up to attack the Naboo sun, Bane exacted his revenge on the scientist by firing at Teska's rocket boosters during the scientist's fight with Skywalker and Tano in the weapon's core room, stranding Teska on the room's central platform. Leaving Teska to be defeated by Skywalker and Tano, Bane retrieved his Telgorn dropship and escaped from Behpour. Following this incident, Bane sabotaged the Sheathipede-class transport shuttle that Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress were using to flee from Behpour; the mercenary watched the pair's vessel malfunction in space from The Sleight of Hand before rocketing away.

Raid on the Senate
"Sorry to bother you, Chancellor, but I've taken control of the East Wing of your Senate Building, and the occupants are now my hostages. If you care about them, I'd advise you to free Ziro the Hutt from the Detention Center."

- Cad Bane speaks to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine

Bane was later hired by the Hutts to free Hutt crime lord Ziro Desilijic Tiure, who had been arrested earlier in the war for crimes against the Republic and had since been incarcerated in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center on Coruscant. Instead of opting for a straightforward prison break, Bane decided to force the Republic into freeing Ziro by taking hostages in the form of senators of the Galactic Senate. To do so, Bane required a skilled group of bounty hunters, as even he could not hold the entire Senate hostage on his own. He assembled a team consisting of the Jedi hunter Aurra Sing, the Weequay mercenary Shahan Alama, and the Patrolian slicer Robonino, backed up by a number of Separatist BX-series droid commandos and IG-86 sentinel droids. As the organic members of Bane's posse usually worked alone, Bane arranged a test for his accomplices to ensure that they could function together as a team. To that end, Bane lured rival bounty hunter Davtokk to the planet Keyorin under the cover of holding a recruitment drive for his posse. Knowing that Davtokk intended to kill him and collect the bounty on his head, Bane assembled a life-size mannequin of himself from a scrapped B1 battle droid to fool Davtokk. After arriving on Keyorin and entering Bane's trap with directions from Bane's techno-service droid, Todo 360, Davtokk fired upon the droid mannequin, assuming it to be Bane. Davtokk then came under attack by Robonino, Alama, and Sing, and Bane watched as his team fought and crippled the enemy mercenary.

Bane emerged from the shadows and confronted Davtokk, explaining that the entire operation had been arranged as a final test for his new team. He then pointed one of his blaster pistols at Davtokk's head and discharged the weapon, killing the incapacitated mercenary. Now confident that his accomplices could work together as a whole, Bane took his team to Coruscant to raid the Senate and execute their bold campaign to free Ziro the Hutt. He carefully timed the operation concurrently with the Senate Commando guards' shift change in order to maximize his casualties. After dispatching Sing, Robonino, and two of the sentinel droids in an airspeeder to a nearby tower to wait as backup, Bane, Alama, another sentinel droid, and a pair of droid commandos that were there for Bane's protection proceeded to the Republic Executive Building's restricted landing platform in another speeder. Bane's arrival did not go unnoticed; he was greeted by a squad of Senate Commandos, who intended to arrest him for his violation of security protocols.

As Senate Commando Captain Jayfon ordered him to assume a submissive position and sent one of his subordinates forward to handcuff Bane, Sing opened fire on the guards with a sniper rifle from her long-range post. In the confusion, Bane rushed forward and personally eliminated Jayfon by tackling him and snapping his neck. At the same time, Alama and the droids rushed out of the speeder and took care of the rest of the Senate Commandos. With the guards' threat rendered moot and the coast clear, Bane signaled for Sing and the rest of the group to join them at the Executive Building. Bane also ordered the droid commandos to pose as the Senate Commandos by putting on their armor. Once Sing, Robonino, and the droids had arrived at the platform, Bane ordered the droid commandos to remain outside and finish clearing the platform while he proceeded into the headquarters of the Senate with the others. After eliminating the Senate Commando posted at the Executive Building's power control room as well as several Republic droids inside, Bane left Robonino there to shut off the power while the Duros hunter headed for the building's east wing atrium with the rest of his team. Along the way to confront the senators, Bane took advantage of the Senate Commandos' shift change by tossing a primed thermal detonator into their crowded barracks, removing most of the active Senate security from their duties. Bane and his comrades continued on to discuss their "business" with the Senate.

Bane, Sing, Alama, and the sentinel droids entered the atrium through different doors and converged on the ten senators there who were discussing an upcoming vote on the Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill legislation. Bane caught the senators' attention by firing several blaster shots into the ceiling and asserted that they were now all in his power. When Senator Philo voiced objections to being taken hostage and attempted to leave, Bane shot him in the back and turned back to the shocked senators, ordering them to turn over their communication devices before they could call for help. With the first stage of his operation complete, Bane contacted Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in his office via a holotransmission and dictated to him his terms: the hostages would be freed if Ziro was released from prison. Although Palpatine objected to this impertinent show of force, Robonino shut off the Executive Building's power at that moment, trapping Palpatine and Senator Orn Free Taa in the office and compromising all external communications. As the bounty hunters collected the senators' transmission devices in the atrium, Bane came across Senator Padmé Amidala and conferred with her, though she stated that the Senate would not deal with terrorists. Bane then noticed Amidala glance at something behind him, and the bounty hunter turned around to see Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker surveying them from an upper level of the atrium.

Bane immediately opened fire on Skywalker, and the Jedi Knight's escape prompted Bane to order Alama and an IG-86 sentinel droid after their quarry. When Alama returned without the droid, he reported to Bane that the droid had been destroyed by Skywalker but reported that an examination of the droid's remains had revealed that Skywalker was without his lightsaber. Bane then dispatched Sing to assist Alama in finding, apprehending, and bringing Skywalker back to him. When the senators began to talk amongst themselves, Bane quieted them by firing off a blaster round and contacted Palpatine once more. He told the Chancellor to make a pardon disc to free Ziro, and Senator Taa would be picked up by Bane's airspeeder to deliver the disc to the prison. Taa reluctantly obeyed, and the sentinel droid HELIOS-3D, one of Ziro's own droids, transported Taa to the Detention Center. Shortly thereafter, Sing and Alama came back to the atrium with Robonino and an unconscious, handcuffed Skywalker in tow. Bane taunted the comatose Jedi Knight before having his accomplices toss their prisoner in with the rest of the senators. He then checked in with HELIOS-3D, who stated that they were on schedule and was arriving at the Detention Center with Taa. Preparing to leave, Bane had his comrades set up their "parting gifts" for the senators&mdash;a laser web that would activate explosives upon the slightest touch. After making contact with Palpatine one last time and warning him not to mount any last-ditch attempts to apprehend him, Bane bade the senators farewell and left the Senate with his accomplices.

Upon their arrival at the landing platform, Bane and his team were confronted by a pair of LAAT/i gunships that landed and deployed clone troopers of the Coruscant Guard under the command of Clone Commander CC-1010. While the clones blocked the bounty hunters' escape, Palpatine contacted Bane and demanded the mercenary's surrender. However, Bane revealed that the senators were still being held hostage by his laser web, and with the senators at the bounty hunter's mercy, the outwitted Palpatine reluctantly relinquished his attempts to apprehend the bounty hunter. Holding his finger over the button that would destroy the east wing atrium and kill the senators, Bane was able to buy himself and his team safe passage from the Executive Building and the Coruscant Guard. HELIOS-3D arrived at the Executive Building with a freed Ziro the Hutt in tow, and Bane and his comrades boarded the speeder and left the Senate without further resistance from the Republic. As they headed away from the Senate, Bane conferred with Ziro, who professed that the indignities he had suffered in prison were unimaginable.

Bane offered some dead senators to the Hutt as payback for his grievances, and with that, the mercenary remotely detonated the explosive charges in the east wing atrium. Skywalker had recovered in the meantime and managed to cut a hole in the floor around himself and the senators, allowing them to drop into the room below seconds before the atrium exploded. Though Ziro congratulated Bane on his success, Bane ignored the accolade and demanded his pay from the Hutt, as he worked only for money. Bane then convened with his team at a hideout elsewhere on Coruscant, where he told his comrades that they had been handsomely rewarded for their part in the operation. Although Alama did not believe that he had transferred all of the proper credits, Bane went on to tell his accomplices to execute the last part of their gambit: to abandon their prides and flee separately to hide from the Republic, stating that it would not do for them to get captured. Alama expressed his mistrust of Bane one last time before the Weequay and the other bounty hunters complied with his orders, escaping from Coruscant. Bane himself was able to evade apprehension by the Jedi Order, although Alama, Robonino, and HELIOS-3D were not as successful in their endeavors. Bane's actions made him a wanted individual, and a undefined5,000 bounty was placed on him for his "crimes against the Republic."

Stealing a Jedi holocron
"To get a holocron, I'd have to break into the Jedi Temple. It's impossible. Not to mention&hellip;deadly.''" "Perhaps your reputation has been exaggerated." "I want a Rogue-class starfighter with elite weapons, cloaking device, the works. Oh, and&hellip;triple my usual rate." "Your price is of no concern. I will also provide you with the means to get inside the Temple." "''You've got a deal."

- Cad Bane and Darth Sidious

Sometime after the Senate hostage crisis, while in his apartment in a seedy Coruscant Underworld hotel, Bane was personally contacted by Darth Sidious, who hired his services to steal a holocron from the Jedi Temple's Archives. Sidious required the holocron to access the Kyber memory crystal, a repository of all Force-sensitive children in the galaxy that was under the protection of Jedi Master Bolla Ropal; the Sith Lord also employed Bane to purloin the crystal. Bane initially believed infiltrating the Temple to be impossible, but when Sidious put his reputation into question, Bane consented to do the assignment regardless of its costs, albeit with the request for an elite starfighter and triple his usual rate. Sidious agreed to meet these terms and additionally provided plans of the Temple. In preparation for the operation, Bane had the body of the late Jedi Master Ord Enisence, who had been killed in action against the Separatists away from Coruscant, brought to his apartment. He subcontracted Cato Parasitti for assistance and also decided to use his techno-service droid, Todo 360, for the gambit.

As Bane worked on Todo, he lied to his droid that he was only doing some maintenance while actually installing an explosive in the droid. Bane had Todo let Parasitti into the apartment when she arrived, and the two bounty hunters examined Sidious's intelligence file on Ropal. Though Parasitti questioned whether they were going after him, Bane replied that they soon would but brought her attention to their current assignment&mdash;stealing a holocron from the Jedi Temple. Despite Sidious's inside information, Bane still required help beyond what Todo could provide&mdash;an agent on the inside of the Temple. To this end, Bane pointed Parasitti to Enisence's body, whose form the Clawdite easily assumed to pose as the dead Jedi. Bane passed an ear-comlink to Parasitti so that they could maintain contact, and although Parasitti questioned the details of Bane's own plan to break into the Holocron Vault, Bane kept a calm demeanor and stated that he would handle it. With that, the bounty hunters proceeded to the Jedi Temple and set their plan into motion. Bane and Todo used their rocket boots to reach an unattended overhang on the side of the Jedi Temple, close to the building's roof. With Parasitti at a computer terminal in the Archive Library, Todo was able to locate a weak point in the Temple's energy shield and opened up an aperture in the shield with a touch of his finger.

Bane and his droid zoomed in through the breach and entered a ventilation shaft, where they descended into a wide, vertical passage that was being blocked by a set of large, active fans. Parasitti directed Todo to the control board, and the droid deactivated the fans so that he and Bane could slip between their blades. Once Bane and Todo had passed between the blades of one of the fans, the droid accidentally reactivated the fan from a motion-sensing security switch. Before the two could be sucked into and sliced by the blades, Parasitti disabled the fan, saving both of them. With the way clear, the pair continued on through the vent system to a shaft directly overlooking the high-security Holocron Vault, which was being protected by a dense laser web. Although Todo wanted to bypass the grate, Bane stopped him and checked with Parasitti on the vault's security measures. Bane noted a change in his comrade's voice, as the shapeshifting Parasitti had assumed the form of Jedi librarian Jocasta Nu. Hearing the sounds of the Jedi searching for them, Bane impatiently waited as Parasitti deactivated the vault's laser sensor system from her terminal. The instant that the primary laser systems were down, Bane and Todo descended into the shaft leading to the Holocron Vault. While Bane used his gauntlet to cut through the safe's lock mechanism, Todo deactivated the remainder of the laser beams surrounding the vault's entrance. Bane then directed Todo to slice through the wall and cut a passage to the Temple's communication center in order to have his techno-service droid lure the Jedi away from the vault, although the bounty hunter hid his intentions&mdash;and the fact that he had implanted a bomb in the droid&mdash;from Todo.

Parasitti, meanwhile, was captured by Ahsoka Tano and revealed Bane's objective to the Jedi. Losing contact with his inside agent, Bane was unable to access the diagrams that would help him deactivate the lock. He barked at Todo to go to the Jedi Temple's communication center to pose as a distraction for the Jedi, and once the droid departed, Bane primed a bomb of the same model that he had installed in his droid to break through the vault's lock. The hunter hid from the approaching Jedi&mdash;Anakin Skywalker and Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had been tipped off by Tano to the mercenary's target&mdash;as the explosive went off and waited until the pair had followed Todo to the communication center before emerging from the shadows. Bane heaved the Holocron Vault's door open all the way and proceeded unopposed into the room, where he extracted the holocron from its holding place. He then stuffed the holocron into a pocket and donned a Jedi robe to sneak away through the Archive Library. Despite catching sight of a cuffed Parasitti being led away by Tano and the real Jocasta Nu, Bane did not attempt to rescue her and ducked his head, heading away in the other direction. Bane escaped the Temple without either of his accomplices, leaving Parasitti in the Jedi's custody and allowing Todo to serve his purpose as a decoy by being destroyed by the explosive that he had installed in the droid earlier.

Exploits at Devaron
"You have nowhere left to run, bounty hunter.''" "Let me worry about that, Jedi. If I activate this control, the outside airlock will open, and she will be sucked into oblivion. Do you think you can kill me and then save her before she's pulled out into space? It's a horrible way to die. Besides, isn't negotiation the Jedi way?" "What do you want?" "''This holocron carries information I've been paid to collect. I can't unlock it, but you can. The last Jedi who had it wouldn't open it. I hope you don't make the same mistake."

- Anakin Skywalker and Cad Bane negotiate the unlocking of the holocron in exchange for Ahsoka Tano's life

With hired assistance from Aurra Sing, Bane took a fleet of Munificent-class frigates and C-9979 landing craft to mount a surprise attack on the planet Devaron, where Bolla Ropal maintained a Republic base. Initiating a ground assault on the planet and commanding his armada from his lead Munificent-class frigate, Bane contacted Sing's battle droid squad, codenamed "Nashtah Team," to check on her progress. Sing reported that she was on the western end of the valley where the outpost was located, but even though she spotted Ropal and had a clear shot at him, Bane ordered her not to shoot the Jedi Master, as he was his target. Instead, Bane told Sing to distract Ropal's Padawan, Tyzen Xebec, and several clones who had just arrived. In the meantime, Bane left his command ship and moved in to capture Ropal. En route to the surface in a Rogue-class Porax-38 starfighter, Bane shot several clone troopers before landing and heading for Ropal's position. Along the way, Bane received word from his command ship's crew that the Republic Star Destroyer Resolute had arrived out of hyperspace and realized that Parasitti had betrayed his target to the Jedi, at which he swore to "return the favor." Bane ordered his fleet into defensive formation to stop the Resolute before it could interrupt his task. He found Ropal deflecting blaster shots with his lightsaber and loaded an expensive shot of cortosis ore into his blaster pistol, using it to short out Ropal's weapon. With Ropal disarmed, Bane threw a cord at the Jedi Master, tying his legs together and knocking him to the ground.

Although Ropal tossed his temporarily defunct lightsaber aside and refused to open the holocron for him, Bane had one of his super battle droids shock Ropal, rendering him unconscious. Bane took Ropal hostage and stole the Kyber crystal from his person before loading him on board a Sheathipede-class transport shuttle and taking him to his command ship. As Bane rendezvoused with a Trade Federation escort of Munificent-class frigates over Devaron that had been dispatched by Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray at Darth Sidious's request, they were ambushed by the Resolute, commanded by Skywalker. Ordering his battle droid crew to move the ship out of the battle zone and prepare to jump to hyperspace, Bane went to confront Ropal in the Jedi's holding cell, as only a Jedi could open the holocron and combine it with the Kyber crystal to make it readable. However, the Resolute targeted the frigate's hyperdrive and compromised the ship's power converters, trapping Bane in the system. Bane was notified of this impediment on his way to Ropal's cell by a battle droid, and wondered out loud what the Jedi were planning.

Though Bane tortured Ropal with electrical charges, the Jedi Master continued to refuse to unlock the crystal with the holocron. Having no use for an uncooperative prisoner, Bane ordered his droids to increase Ropal's electrocution to full power, killing the Jedi Master. Bane saw this murder as only a slight setback to achieving his objective, but he still required a Jedi to access the crystal. Returning to his ship's bridge, Bane was contacted by an upset Gunray, who was angered that four of his loaned ships had been destroyed. Bane remained unconcerned about the losses; he knew that Sidious valued the information in the memory crystal and believed that the Sith Lord would compensate Gunray's expenses. As Skywalker and Tano landed on the dorsal hull of Bane's frigate with All Terrain Tactical Enforcers, Bane refused to send out Vulture droid reinforcements into the battle&mdash;to the surprise of both his battle droid crew and Gunray. Although Gunray demanded that he transmit the information and abandon the plan before the Jedi boarded his ship and stole the holocron back, Bane replied that he could not submit the data, but still intended to let Skywalker and Tano embark his ship in order to get one of them to unlock the crystal with the holocron. Ending his conversation with Gunray, Bane gave orders to his crew, telling them to wipe the frigate's memory, activate the self-destruct sequence, and transfer control of all shipboard functions to his wrist-com.

Leaving his battle droids to defend the bridge, Bane escaped through a ventilation duct moments before Skywalker, Tano, Clone Captain Rex, and their clone trooper squad arrived there and captured it from the droids. On the frigate's gunnery deck, Bane assembled lines of B1 and B2 battle droids, intending to have them fight and distract the clones while he himself separated the Jedi and led one of them away. With his troops in place, Bane ran through the hallways of his frigate and lured the Jedi and clones&mdash;who had found the late Ropal in his holding cell&mdash;to the gunnery deck. Once Skywalker, Tano, and the clones had arrived in the darkened room, Bane revealed his forces by reactivating the lights and ordered the droids to open fire on the Jedi and clones. As a gunfight erupted as planned, Bane secured himself to the floor with his mango-grip boots and increased the fight's stakes by disabling the frigate's gravity generators and deactivating the artificial gravity. The Jedi and clones rose off the floor, while the battle droids, still magnetized to the deck, continued to fire at them. Bane targeted his blaster fire at Skywalker, who made it past him, and the bounty hunter quickly got out of range of the Jedi's lightsaber slashes. Bane opened fire on the clones, shooting and killing several of them. However, Skywalker soon returned to fight Bane, surprising him from behind and delivering a kick that knocked the holocron out of his grip. Just as Skywalker was about to grab the holocron, the astromech droid R2-D2 reactivated the gravity, plummeting everyone back down to the floor.

Bane retrieved the holocron and shot at a trooper still magnetized to the roof, keeping Skywalker occupied with safely lowering the clone to the floor while he himself made his escape. Bane drew Tano after him, and the Padawan fell into his trap. Luring Tano into a dead-end corridor away from Skywalker, Bane cut her off from her Master by closing the hallway's blast doors behind her. Bane's first laser shot at the Padawan was deflected back at one of his gauntlets, but he managed to deliver a kick that knocked her lightsaber out of her hand. Before he could fire at her again, Tano brazenly grabbed his blaster arm and flipped him to the ground. Bane stopped Tano from telekinetically retrieving her lightsaber by grabbing her ankle and sending a paralyzing stun charge through her body that knocked her unconscious. He picked up the holocron and placed Tano in self-tightening stun cuffs that had been "specially designed" for Jedi. Once Tano had woken up, Bane stole her Padawan braid jewelry from her as a trophy. As the two exchanged banter, Bane electrocuted Tano to increase Skywalker's sense of urgency. He then moved the subdued Tano to the frigate's airlock and placed her on the space-ward side of the shield.

After receiving word from a battle droid outside the airlock that Skywalker had arrived, Bane activated the airlock's shield, trapping Tano so that she could serve as a bargaining chip. Skywalker entered the room to find Tano at Bane's mercy, and Bane demanded that Skywalker unlock the memory crystal, fully prepared to open the airlock to the vacuum of space and send Tano to her death if he refused to do so. With his Padawan's life at risk, Skywalker handed over his lightsaber and used the Force to disassemble the holocron, combining it with the crystal and making the crystal's contents readable. Once Bane had taken the holocron, Skywalker retrieved Tano's lightsaber and his own weapon with the Force and made quick work of Bane's super battle droid bodyguards. In retaliation, Bane opened the airlock, keeping the two Jedi occupied while he flew away with his rocket boots through an emergency bulkhead that sealed behind him. Bane made contact with Gunray and informed him of his success with gaining access to the crystal. Although Gunray offered to send an escape vessel in exchange for the transmission of the data, Bane remained too cagey to give in to his terms. With his own plans for escape, Bane made his way to a shaft overlooking the frigate's hangar bay, which was housing a firefight between the clones and droids over control of a Sheathipede-class shuttle.

While looking over the firefight, Bane was confronted by troopers Denal and Koho. The bounty hunter killed Denal and stole his armor, using it to pose as the clone. Bane also removed his own cybernetic breathing tubes in order to don the trooper's helmet. To convince Skywalker and Tano that he was Denal, the clone armor–clad Bane shot a figure garbed in his own outfit. The Jedi witnessed Bane's exploit, and as they believed him to be dead, they did not suspect that the trooper was Bane when he joined them on their shuttle and escaped the frigate with them shortly before it exploded, though Skywalker could still sense his persona in the Force. After returning to the Resolute with the Jedi and clones, Bane disembarked the shuttle with the others and discreetly made his way away from the group. Tano followed the disguised Bane to get him to receive treatment for his injuries at the medical bay, and she eventually realized that he was not a clone. Bane responded to her voiced realizations by kneeing her in the midsection, causing her to fall to the floor. Making his way to a V-19 Torrent starfighter, Bane took out several troopers around the fighter and boarded the ship. Skywalker jumped onto Bane's activated fighter and knocked his helmet off, revealing the true identity of the "trooper." Bane piloted his fighter out of the hangar and its magnetic shield, forcing Skywalker to jump off, and proceeded to the Resolute set of hyperdrive rings. He stole a booster ring before the Resolute crew could lock them down, escaping to hyperspace and evading capture by the Jedi.

Threat to the Jedi's future
"It is only a matter of time before we locate the holocron. Make it easier on yourself.''" "What are you going to do, Jedi? Torture me?" "''I think the fear of whoever you work for outweighs your fear of us."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi, Cad Bane, and Mace Windu

Returning to Black Stall Station, Bane informed Sidious of his success with unlocking the crystal and asked if there was anything else that he could do for him. The Sith Lord gave Bane a new mission: capturing four of the Force-sensitive infants listed in the crystal and delivering them to the remote planet Mustafar, where Sidious planned to experiment with them to build his own personal corps of Force-wielding spies. Bane agreed to do the job, provided that he continue to get his pay. Using the Xanadu Blood, the heavily modified and well-equipped Rogue-class Porax-38 starfighter that had been gifted to him by Sidious, Bane captured the young Nautolan Zinn Toa on the planet Glee Anselm. Next traveling to Rodia, Bane donned a Jedi robe to pose as a Jedi and avoid attracting unwanted attention in the operation at hand. Bane met with the Rodian Mahtee Dunn, the mother of the Force-sensitive Wee Dunn, in their home in Kay-Tap square. Though the Rodian mother recalled Bolla Ropal's previous statement that her son would not have to start his training at the Jedi Temple for some time, Bane deceived her, stating that Jedi impostors had been stealing Force-sensitive children across the galaxy&mdash;with the increased danger, he claimed that he had to take the young Dunn immediately.

Encountering difficulties with convincing Mahtee to surrender her son to him, Bane used a hypnogazer to temporarily alter her memory and force her into complying with his demands. Preparing to escape with the young Dunn in his arms, Bane witnessed Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi&mdash;who had been dispatched to prevent the kidnapping&mdash;enter the room and learn of the child's capture from Mahtee. When Kenobi caught sight of him, Bane activated his rocket boots and soared to the platform where the Xanadu Blood was docked. Kenobi went after Bane but arrived too late to prevent him from leaving Rodia with Dunn. After delivering both Toa and Dunn to Sidious's Mustafar facility and wiping the Xanadu Blood navigation records, Bane traveled to the planet Naboo to track down his next target &mdash;the Gungan infant Roo-Roo Page. Touching down near Page's home, located in the waterfall-surrounded Jan-gwa city, Bane proceeded to Page's home and witnessed her mother place a small figure in a crib in the nursery before leaving the room. Believing that she had left behind Page, Bane entered the nursery and pulled back the crib's blanket, only to find a tooka doll in place of the expected infant. A moment later, Ahsoka Tano jumped into the room, lightsaber drawn. Remarking on the Padawan's combination of cleverness and naivety, Bane ensnared her lightsaber with his gauntlet's lanyard and yanked the weapon out of her grip. He released a barrage of blaster fire at Tano, who ducked behind some furniture to avoid the attack.

With Tano briefly distracted, Bane attempted to escape out the window with his rocket boots but was stopped by Skywalker, who jumped off the building's roof and grabbed onto his boots. With the extra weight, Bane's boosters were disabled, and the two tumbled onto a roof. The pair engaged in a brief struggle before landing on the ground, and the outmatched Bane looked up to see Tano's lightsaber in his face. Bane was placed in binders, and Tano retrieved her Padawan braid jewelry that he had previously taken from her at Devaron. When Tano told Page's relieved mother that her Force-sensitive daughter was safe, Bane questioned this claim before being led away by Skywalker. Bane and the Xanadu Blood were taken to the Resolute, where the bounty hunter was placed in a shielded holding cell aboard the Star Destroyer while his starfighter was examined by the Jedi. During an interrogation by Masters Kenobi and Mace Windu, Bane refused to reveal the whereabouts of the kidnapped children, the location of the holocron, and the identity of his client, and the Jedi left his cell to devise another way to glean the information from him. With no alternative methods of interrogation, Windu, Kenobi, and Skywalker bound together and employed the Force to compel the strong-minded Bane to lead them to the stolen holocron&mdash;an act that came at the risk of destroying his mind. Thrashing from his attempts at resisting the Jedi's influence, Bane promised to take them to the holocron, albeit with the intention of leading them into a trap.

The handcuffed Bane was escorted into a waiting T-6 shuttle, where he dictated Black Stall Station's coordinates to his accompanying guards&mdash;Kenobi, Windu, and Clone Commander CC-2224, nicknamed "Cody." After arriving in the asteroid-strewn Rogue Antar system and docking to the station, Kenobi and Windu left Cody with the ship and followed Bane into his headquarters. Though neither Jedi sensed the kidnapped infants, Bane told them that the children were "safe" and focused on the holocron, leading them to the station's control room and directing them to the holocron on a table across the room. Although Bane volunteered to get the holocron for them, Windu refused to let him continue his tricks and proceeded to retrieve the holocron himself. However, Windu unintentionally activated the station's intruder alert system, triggering Klaxon alarms and a laser system that targeted the Jedi. Bane sneaked away from the distracted Jedi Masters and evaded the pursing Kenobi by escaping through a concealed hatch, bidding the Jedi farewell as he left. Breaking out of his binders, Bane departed Black Stall Station in an escape pod, leaving the Jedi occupied with securing their own getaway. Despite his escape from the Jedi's custody, Bane was ultimately unable to complete his kidnappings of the infants, as Sidious's plot was foiled by Skywalker and Tano shortly thereafter.

Later work
"I'll take on any job&hellip;for the right price."

- Cad Bane

Besides his extensive work for Darth Sidious, Bane targeted the protocol droid C-3PO, separating him from his compatriot R2-D2 and abducting him with the help of a techno-service droid and an IG-86 sentinel droid. He then had C-3PO placed in a containment field and interrogated the protocol droid, who revealed his previous work as an envoy for the Manacron system years before the war. Bane also met with the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure at his palace on Tatooine and did business with him there. When the Separatists began posting bounties on Jedi for a "million credits a head," Bane went so far as to confront and battle Obi-Wan Kenobi with a green lightsaber of his own. He even managed to incapacitate Kenobi by electrocuting him.

Personality and traits
"Sure, sure. As long as I get paid, it makes no difference to me."

- Cad Bane, to Darth Sidious

One of the galaxy's most lethal, ruthless, fearsome, and deadly bounty hunters, Cad Bane earned the reputation of the foremost blaster-for-hire during the Clone Wars, filling the position that fellow mercenary Jango Fett vacated when he perished on Geonosis at the beginning of the conflict. Quintessentially cold, cruel, and calculating, Bane was unscrupulous and had much less moral content than Fett, often turning upon his own clients unless he was paid. Bane's loyalty was ultimately to credits and therefore to the highest bidder who offered them. His usual rate was considerable, but so was his reputation, to the point that his quarries knew that nothing would stop him from capturing them. Bane regarded credits with the highest importance, and although he did not pass up the opportunity to demand more pay from his clients when one arose, he was very dedicated to his work if paid the right amount for it, taking on jobs that were considered to be tough, costly, and even impossible. It was said that he could not be stopped and would pursue his prey across the galaxy if necessary, no matter how dangerous the mission or the target; he even enjoyed difficult assignments. He was both respected and feared in his line of work, and he would not let anyone stand in his way.

As a bounty hunter, Bane practiced some amount of autonomy and did not place his trust in others easily or often, believing that the best way to ensure that a task was completed was to do it himself. As such, when his frigate was crippled over Devaron, he ordered his battle droid crew to transfer full control of the ship to his wrist-com. Although he did not always operate alone, he usually worked solo, as doing so gave him the freedom of improvisation and the advantage of more credits that did not have to be split with others. When he recognized that the job was big enough, he employed his fellow hunters for added assistance, though he preferred to keep both his methods for selecting comrades for joint operations and his introduction into the bounty business itself obscure to the galaxy at large. He proved his skill as a leader while commanding the posse that he formed to free Ziro the Hutt from Republic prison, and his assured manner and brutal methods earned him respect from his subordinates. Bane displayed a lack of concern for his accomplices, caring little what happened to his team after they had liberated Ziro, provided that they avoided being captured by the Republic. Additionally, when his comrade, Cato Parasitti, was captured by the Jedi during their joint operation of infiltrating the Jedi Temple, Bane did not attempt to rescue her. Instead, he ignored her plight and left her in the Jedi's custody to continue his work for Darth Sidious. Bane even swore to return the "favor" when Parasitti tipped the Jedi off to his next target.

Bane's heavy restrictions on the allotment of his trust led him to develop several special skills&mdash;including the ability to gather, organize, and make use of data necessary to controlling situations&mdash;that rivaled his adeptness at creating chaos. He preferred that everything operated his way, and his perennial belief in the chance that someone was after him fueled his skill for staying ahead of his opponents. He valued security over punctuality, and while preparing to land on Bogg V, he did not hesitate to spend an extra two hours executing a roundabout landing course to ensure that he was not being followed, regardless of the setback that such a detour caused his waiting client. He made sure that he did not place all of his trust in starship sensors and developed several habits, including the constant monitoring of shipboard displays and reports, as part of his ongoing routine to ensure that he would not become a victim to anyone or anything, faulty technology included. Besides his practices of extra caution, Bane did not waste his time while out of combat, using a hyperspace trip from Kynachi to Bogg V as an opportunity to hone and broaden his bounty hunting skills through watching a pirated Bounty Hunters' Guild's Greatest Hits holovid. Although he did so with the intention of adding to his arsenal the Guild's exclusive techniques for killing amphibious targets that were included in the holovid, he only received a few laughs from watching the film's portrayal of the entertainingly disagreeable pair of Guild leader Cradossk and his son, Bossk, both contemporaries of his.

Crafty, resourceful, vicious, and "brutally ruthless," Bane was good at what he did. He was a clever strategist and carefully planned his trap for the Jedi at Devaron; he was willing to sacrifice anything, even an entire Trade Federation fleet, to lure the Jedi into it. Displays of his astuteness included his arrangement for rival mercenary Davtokk to unwittingly serve as a test for his own team of hunters, his wily pilferage of the murdered Denal's armor to ensure his own escape from the Jedi at Devaron, and his ruse for Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi at Black Stall Station that enabled him to make another getaway. The fact that Bane was able to free Ziro the Hutt with considerable and consummate ease was a testament to his overall abilities. He chose to orchestrate his raid on the Senate during guard shift changes to maximize his operation's element of surprise&mdash;and his casualties&mdash;by eliminating the majority of the active Senate security all at once, showing his opponents no mercy. As a highly skilled mercenary, Bane was a cunning fighter and was proficient in both armed and unarmed combat. Despite his penchant for a good fight, he preferred to use stealth and surprise tactics to avoid a direct fight when possible. Although laconic, Bane could be quite bold and impudent to higher authorities like Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who was outraged by his audacity, and the Jedi. He was fearless and "unflappable" in the face of danger, and he remained undaunted by the Senate Commandos' attempt to arrest him, the Chancellor's threats of retribution for his crimes, and the Jedi's interrogation of him aboard the Resolute. During the latter situation, Bane refused to disclose the identity of his wealthy and powerful Sith Lord client to his Jedi questioners, though Windu attributed his lack of submission to the questioning to his fear of his hirer.

Bane "specialized" in fighting Jedi and did not fear them like other bounty hunters did. Although he developed a certain level of respect for them and their abilities, he was not intimidated by the Force and believed that they sometimes placed too much faith in it. He was capable of posing a significant challenge to the Jedi, and he even welcomed the chance to test his abilities against the "legendary prowess" of the Jedi Knights. In the case of Ring-Sol Ambase, Bane would have gladly killed his Jedi target on the spot, but did not do so because he had not been contracted for such an exploit. Bane was quite pleased when Shahan Alama and Aurra Sing defeated the formidable Anakin Skywalker. Despite his usual strong-mindedness and immunity to Jedi mind tricks, the influence exerted by the combined forces of Skywalker, Windu, and Kenobi forced him to submit to their demands. Although he would have enjoyed taking down down the likes of Skywalker and Kenobi, Bane did not let personal feelings get in the way of his work. Even so, he pursued Kul Teska&mdash;a "competitor" of his&mdash;to Behpour after Teska retrieved the Gravitic Core and stole the bounty hunter's ship on Ryloth. Bane took his revenge on Teska by firing at him, disabling his rocket thrusters during his fight with Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano. Regardless of how tough he was, Bane always kept his cool under control. A talented actor, he was able to deceive Nuru Kungurama, Lalo Gunn, and the clone troopers while on Kynachi, though the troopers eventually came to mistrust him. He secretly manipulated the group into raiding the KynachTech prison by staging an elaborate fight with a few droid commandos to mask his machinations. To gain the group's trust, Bane revealed that he was a bounty hunter; regardless of the risk he took in doing so, he knew that it was easier to deceive someone by telling most of the truth rather than a complete lie.

Seeing as no client was too "wicked" for him, the grim-faced Bane worked for the shadowy Darth Sidious numerous times during the war, as the bounty hunter's reputation was distinguished enough to attract Sidious's attention. When Sidious recruited his services for infiltrating the Jedi Temple, Bane believed the mission to be a "tough challenge," if not impossible and foolhardy. However, he immediately agreed to the "costly assignment" &mdash;and requested triple his normal rate&mdash;when Sidious suggested that his reputation had been exaggerated. Bane took pleasure in striking fear in his quarries and captives, as evidenced by his treatment of the senators during his brazen hostage-taking in the Senate. He responded to Senator Philo's refusal to submit to his "insolence" by killing Philo without hesitation, showing the other senators that he meant business. Bolla Ropal's refusal to help Bane open the holocron prompted the mercenary to intensify his torture of the Jedi Master, ultimately killing him. Bane deemed Ropal's sacrifice to be foolish and held little regard for his life, walking away from the murder scene without a backward glance and seeing the death as only a "slight delay" in achieving his objective. An arrogant killer, Bane was happy to cause collateral damage as part of his work. He did not take prisoners, preferring to obliterate all in his path to his intended victims, regardless of the trail of carnage he left; as such, he sought to kill his senator hostages even after he had negotiated for their release in exchange for Ziro the Hutt's freedom. He had no problems with going back on his word, exemplified in his discharge of the explosives that were trapping the senators in the Executive Building's atrium, even when his and his Hutt quarry's escape from the Senate had already been secured. When Skywalker attempted to attack him during the fight over Devaron, Bane opened his frigate's airlock and put Tano's life at risk, despite his bargaining just minutes before for her safe release.

Equipment
"Let's make this a bit more interesting."

- Cad Bane, as he disables the artificial gravity on his frigate with his gauntlet

Bane used an impressive arsenal of weapons and tools to ensure that he would be well-prepared for any situation that might arise. He carried a set of personalized twin blaster pistols customized from BlasTech Industries' LL-30 model and wore a set of quick-draw holsters made of scuffed nerf-hide to hold them at his waist. He also kept explosives, a concealed bola, and a smaller, alternate pistol as extra weapons. When necessary, he used shots of cortosis to short out lightsabers; though cortosis was high-priced and "hell on barrels," it got the job done. His tools included a durasteel ice pick, which he kept in his gun belt. He utilized removable cybernetic breathing tubes that were embedded in his cheekbones; they were directly connected to his windpipe, allowing him to work freely in the harshest atmospheres without requiring additional protection. Bane's durasteel magno-grip boots were equipped with customized Mitrinomon jetpack thrusters, and his bulky but useful multipurpose wrist gauntlets possessed a variety of control devices, built-in tools, and weapons, including a cable launcher, comlink, data uplink, lanyard, non-lethal contact stunners, and a flamethrower. Bane's gear itself was designed to counteract the abilities of Force-users; his external breathing tubes prevented him from being Force-choked, and his rocket boots rivaled a Jedi's Force speed. His usual choice of clothing included a wide-brimmed hat and a Nashtah-hide tunic with a heavy cloak.

Bane owned the techno-service droid Todo 360, whom he used for a number of missions. Despite the droid's objections to such disparagement, Bane viewed him as a "butler droid." He eventually used Todo as a decoy at the Jedi Temple to distract the Jedi, sacrificing the droid to make his own escape. Bane made use of a number of modified starships for his operations. He utilized The Sleight of Hand, a Telgorn dropship with formidable weapons systems that he personally outfitted and customized with military-grade gear and an advanced hyperdrive to suit his needs as a transport vessel. A sophisticated sensor jammer even rendered the dropship invisible to most scanners. Though the craft was stolen from him by Kul Teska on Ryloth, Bane later recovered it from him. He also flew the Xanadu Blood, a heavily modified Rogue-class Porax-38 starfighter that was given to him by Darth Sidious. Although its layers of paint were chipped, the fighter served Bane well in his hunt for Force-sensitive infants. After his capture on Naboo, his ship was left with the Jedi on board the Resolute.

Portrayal and development
"The crew loves Cad Bane, and I really think the fans will, too. He brings a serious bad-ass sensibility to Star Wars. He's a lethal and ruthless bounty hunter, and you see that right away in the episode. Unlike Boba Fett, Cad doesn't take prisoners."

- "Hostage Crisis" Director Giancarlo Volpe compares Bane to Boba Fett

The character of Cad Bane was created for the 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. He was first featured in the series' first season finale, "Hostage Crisis," as well as its accompanying webcomic, Invitation Only. Because the episode introduced the concept of bounty hunters into the series, Bane was one of the first such individuals to appear in the show. He also appeared in Hunting the Hunters, Part I, the first in a sub-series of The Clone Wars webcomics that transitioned between the television series' first and second seasons, and was a prominent character in Secret Missions 1: Breakout Squad, the first installment in a new series of novels written by Ryder Windham.

Bane was a major character from the very beginning of Season Two, being featured across the three-part story arc&mdash;consisting of the episodes "Holocron Heist," "Cargo of Doom," and "Children of the Force"&mdash;that began the season. In addition to playing a role in Act on Instinct, the webcomic tying into Season Two, he was also given a role&mdash;both involved in the plot and as a bonus playable character&mdash;in the multi-platform video game Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes. Bane was offered as a usable character in Cartoon Network's online The Clone Wars Game Creator, which allowed players to create their own online mini-games and play those developed by others. Bane was additionally collected in several of Hasbro's 2010 toy figure lines and was given a brief role in the 2010 novel Secret Missions 2: Curse of the Black Hole Pirates. He will return to the television series in its third season, to begin airing in Fall 2010.

Throughout the television series and Republic Heroes, Bane was portrayed by voice actor Corey Burton, who also provided the voices for Ziro Desilijic Tiure and Shahan Alama in the series. At the suggestion of Series Producer and Star Wars creator George Lucas, Burton took inspiration from film actor Peter Lorre in voicing Bane and used the character's pre-established Western American influences to bring the bounty hunter to life with his own original characterization. Burton's voice was also modified on the computer by the series' sound production team.

Initially, bounty hunters were not to be a part of the television series, but as the first season's storylines developed, a character was required to fill the role of a hunter. Supervising Director Dave Filoni and writer Henry Gilroy explored the possibility of implementing the Gen'Dai mercenary Durge into the series, and the character was re-imagined as a Human. The individual eventually evolved into one named "Nom Kahbah" before Lucas became personally involved with the development, suggesting that a Western American influence be used. At Lucas's request, inspiration for the character was taken from Lee Van Cleef's characters from the films The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and For a Few Dollars More. Filoni found an unlabeled sketch of a bounty hunter from the original Star Wars film trilogy, and the concept ended up providing the basis for Bane's model, with additional expansion by Lead Designer Kilian Plunkett to incorporate the Duros species' features. The character's name was eventually changed to "Cad Bane."

Inconsistencies
"However, it seems that not everyone was pleased to see Ziro locked away. While it's not clear from this episode who was responsible, someone of considerable means must have hired bounty hunter Cad Bane and his team to rescue the Hutt. And from Chancellor Palpatine's exchange with Bane (where he warns the bounty hunter, 'You will end up paying for this outrage'), it seems doubtful that the Separatists are behind this rescue, either. But then again, Darth Sidious's mysterious plans have never been easy to unravel."

- An excerpt from The Official Episode Guide: Season 1

According to Bane's StarWars.com Databank entry, some first season publicity materials mistakenly implied that Darth Sidious and the Separatists had hired Bane to free Ziro the Hutt from prison. Although the Databank entry went on to state that Bane was working for the Hutts, not the Dark Lord, when he liberated Ziro, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Official Episode Guide: Season 1 publication released in 2009 further complicated the matter by claiming that Bane's employer had yet to be identified in Season Two, though none of the episodes featuring Bane even alluded to the Senate hostage crisis. Until the matter is properly resolved, this article assumes that Bane was hired by the Hutts.

The storyline of the Nintendo DS edition of Republic Heroes greatly contradicts the plot of episodes within the television series' first season, as well as the other editions of Republic Heroes. In the DS edition, Bane contacts the Republic from a Separatist prison on Ryloth, where he is being held, and offers to sell information about a secret Confederate facility, but insists on only dealing with Senator Padmé Amidala. The Jedi believe the bounty hunter's information to be critical in uncovering a large Separatist plot and decide to rescue Bane, sending Jedi Master Kit Fisto as Amidala's escort. The two infiltrate the prison and rescue Bane, but Fisto gets separated from the Senator in the process. Bane promises to reveal the information if Amidala takes him to his ship, the Xanadu Blood, and they fight through battle droids before eventually reaching the craft. Sticking to his word, Bane tells the Senator of Juma 9&mdash;which, in this case, is a strategic Confederate outpost, while in the other editions of the game it is an active Republic mining facility. It is protected by a defense perimeter, which can only be bypassed with recent Separatist clearance codes. This leads into a storyline involving the Confederate General Grievous's castle on the third moon of Vassek that ignores the plot and aims of the Jedi raid on the lair already portrayed in the television series' first season. Because of this story's extremely conflicting plot that would otherwise require too much fan-based speculation to integrate into the canonical biography, this article assumes that the Nintendo DS edition of Republic Heroes is non-canonical.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Forces of Darkness
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Stand Aside - Bounty Hunters!
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars Secret Missions 1: Breakout Squad
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars Secret Missions 2: Curse of the Black Hole Pirates
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes
 * The Clone Wars: Invitation Only
 * The Clone Wars: Hunting the Hunters (Part I)
 * The Clone Wars: Hunting the Hunters (Part III)
 * HoloNet News — A Galaxy Divided (Part 1)
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars Game Creator
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Holocron Heist
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Holocron Hunters
 * The Clone Wars: Act on Instinct
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Children of the Force
 * The Clone Wars: Season Three
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Children of the Force
 * The Clone Wars: Season Three
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Children of the Force
 * The Clone Wars: Season Three
 * The Clone Wars: Season Three
 * The Clone Wars: Season Three