Senate hostage crisis/Legends

The Senate hostage crisis was a raid on the Republic Executive Building on Coruscant in 22 BBY. Organized by Duro bounty hunter Cad Bane, the objective was to force Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to issue a pardon for the Hutt crime lord Ziro Desilijic Tiure. The Hutt had been imprisoned by the Coruscant Guard shortly after the Battle of Teth for his role in the incarceration of Senator Padmé Amidala and the Confederacy kidnapping of his great-nephew Rotta.

At some point, Bane was contacted to arrange Ziro's rescue from the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center. Bane and his team of bounty hunters, which included the infamous Aurra Sing, infiltrated the Executive Annex Dome and captured several Senators during a conference regarding the Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill, and issued an ultimatum to the Supreme Chancellor: Ziro was to be released, or the Senators would be executed. Unbeknownst to Bane, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker had been in the dome at the time, visiting Senator Padmé Amidala. Although both Bane and Ziro escaped Coruscant, Skywalker was able to save the Senators.

Capture of Ziro
"Stop, Ziro! Stop right where you are!"

- Padmé Amidala as Ziro the Hutt is cornered



Before the Battle of Christophsis, Ziro Desilijic Tiure, uncle to Jabba Desilijic Tiure, hoped to gain control of his nephew's criminal empire and so entered into an agreement with Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Dooku sought access to hyperspace lanes that ran through Hutt-controlled space, and believed that the kidnapping of Jabba's son Rotta and the framing of the Jedi for the crime would remove Jabba as an obstacle, as he would take rash actions to punish the Jedi supposedly responsible and would them be arrested. Ziro provided information to Dooku and his apprentice, Asajj Ventress, on the whereabouts of Jabba's son, and Ventress traveled to Tatooine to capture the infant. She took Rotta to Teth, where Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were lured into battle.

Skywalker and his apprentice Ahsoka Tano were able to rescue the Huttlet; however, Dooku and Ventress framed the Jedi by using protocol droid 4A-7 to transmit a holorecording of Skywalker and Tano putting the Huttlet into a backpack. To contact Jabba and convince him otherwise, Skywalker's wife, Senator Padmé Amidala, sought the help of Ziro, who resided in a palace on Coruscant. Ziro, fearful of being discovered, imprisoned Amidala within his palace on the advice of Count Dooku. To Ziro's chagrin, the Senator was able to contact her protocol droid, C-3PO, and get a message to the Coruscant Guard. The guard's troopers, lead by Commander Fox, raided Ziro's palace and captured the Vigo with the aid of the freed Senator Amidala.

Ziro was incarcerated in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center on Coruscant, and while there, either he or his allies in the Confederacy contacted Cad Bane, a renowned Duro bounty hunter who rose to fame, following the death of Jango Fett during the Battle of Geonosis. After Bane was recruited to rescue Ziro from the detention center, he began to assemble a team of bounty hunters, including the infamous Jedi hunter Aurra Sing, Weequay Shahan Alama, and a hunter of an unknown species, Robonino.

Bane's test


To test the "solitary types" of the hunters he would be working with, Bane set up a trap for bounty hunter Davtokk on the planet Keyorin. Davtokk had traveled to Keyorin to kill Bane; however, Bane was able to deceive the human by setting up a battle droid doppelganger of himself within an explosive-wired building. Robobino detonated the explosives, forcing Davtokk outside, where he was caught in a net by Shahan Alama. Davtokk easily cut his way out, but was shot through the knees by sniper fire from Aurra Sing. The three hunters surrounded him, and Bane finally revealed himself, explaining that Davtokk's death was merely a preliminary for his colleagues, who's true work was on Coruscant.

Entering the Senate Building
"I've got business with the Senate. How 'bout you fellas step aside?"

- Cad Bane to several Senate Commandos



Arriving on Coruscant, Bane's team split to gain entrance to the Senate Building. Cad Bane, Shahan Alama, two BX-series droid commandos and an IG-86 sentinel droid arrived at the building in an airspeeder, where they were confronted by a squad of Senate Commandos. From an adjacent tower, Aurra Sing provided a distraction and covering sniper fire, allowing the team to neutralize all of the Senate Guards. The commando droids cleared the platform of bodies and dressed up in the Senate Guards' armor, while Sing, Robonino and two more sentinel droids arrived at the scene in the second airspeeder. Leaving both BX units outside, the rest of the team made their way inside the complex.



Taking Senators hostage
"Morning, Senators. You should all consider yourselves to be in my power. As long as everybody behaves, this will be quick and painless. Do nothing, and it will all be over soon."

- Cad Bane to the Senators

Once the team entered and took control of the power room, destroying an assistant droid, a protocol droid, a WED unit and an R5 unit in the process, Robonino began sabotaging the building's power distribution network. In the meantime, Bane and Sing wiped out most of the Senate Commandos in the building by tossing a thermal detonator into their barracks when both shifts were assembled there. The group then proceeded to the East Wing of the building and took the Senators there hostage. When the blue-skinned Gran Senator Philo tried to escape while refusing to "listen to insolence," Bane shot him in the back and told the frightened Senators to remove any communication devices.

Capturing Skywalker
"Tie your little pet up. We'll bring him to Bane."

- Aurra Sing to Robonino

After Robonino shut down all power in the Senate building and activated the emergency lockdown in the nearby Republic Executive Building, Bane made contact with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and demanded him to release Ziro Desilijic Tiure from the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center. However, Bane was unaware that Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, Palpatine's future Sith apprentice, was still inside the building, though he was unarmed, as his wife Amidala had ended up with his lightsaber before heading away. Once Skywalker was spotted above the lobby, Bane set Shahan Alama and a sentinel droid after him. Skywalker managed to use a mind trick to separate Alama from the droid, and Skywalker was able to destroy the droid. By examining its remains, Alama deduced that the Jedi was unarmed. After reporting to Bane, Alama continued the hunt with the aid of Aurra Sing. Skywalker pulled Alama's blaster out of his hand with the Force, but Sing shot the blaster out of Skywalker's hand. Robonino shocked the Jedi, and the Jedi Knight was brought to Skywalker in handcuffs.



Ziro's release
"So here's what you're going to do. First, you're going to make a pardon disc. You can give it to your friend there. My ship will come and pick him up and take him to the prison. Once Ziro has been released and is handed over to me, then your associate will be released, understand?" "Oh, I do. But I feel it is my duty to warn you that you will end up paying for this outrage." "I can live with that."

- Cad Bane and Palpatine

Bane instructed Palpatine to make a pardon disc and to give it to Twi'lek Senator Orn Free Taa to deliver to the prison. The sentinel droid 3D escorted the Senator to the landing platform, where a speeder was parked with a transport attached for the large Hutt. At the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center, Ziro was released, and was taken by 3D back to the Senate Building, while Senator Taa remained with the Coruscant Guard at the prison.

A "parting gift"


In the atrium, Bane's team set up a system of laser-triggered bombs, which would prevent the Senators from moving without triggering explosives planted around the room, and prepared to leave the building. On the landing platform, Bane and his team prepared to leave, but a pair of LAAT/i gunships arrived, and Palpatine contacted Bane, ordering him to surrender. Bane revealed his "parting gift" of the still-trapped Senators, and Palpatine reluctantly allowed Bane to leave in order to keep the Senators safe.

Back in the East Wing, Skywalker awoke. Amidala faked that she had found his lightsaber when he "dropped it," and cut Skywalker's cuffs off. Just in time, Skywalker was able to cut a hole in the floor around the Senators, and all of them dropped into the room below seconds before Bane remotely activated the explosives as "payback" for the "horrors" Ziro had gone through in prison.



Aftermath
"Congratulations on a job well done, bounty hunter." "Time to pay up, Hutt. I don't work for free." "Hmm."

- Ziro the Hutt and Cad Bane

Many of the Senate Commandos throughout the Senate Building had perished because of the bounty hunters, but thankfully none of the Senators lost their lives, aside from Philo. The East Wing of the Senate Building was left damaged in multiple places thanks to Bane. Ziro was free once more, and Cad Bane had garnered another successful mission to add to his reputation.

Behind the scenes
The raid was featured in the season finale of Season One of The Clone Wars animated series, "Hostage Crisis," and it allowed for the debut of bounty hunters in the television series to take place. The episode itself garnered the highest ratings since the series' premiere, "Ambush".

The web comic Invitation Only depicted Bane's "test" of his team against Davtokk which led up into the battle.