Cad Bane

Darth Sidious contacted Cad Bane for a very special assignment: to steal a holocron from the vault of the Jedi Temple. No easy task, Cad required the help of his techno-service droid Todo 360, and a shapeshifting bounty hunter named Cato Parisitti. Darth Sidious was able to provide surprisingly detailed schematics of the Jedi Temple.

Bane snuck through the Temple's inner ventilation ducts, slipping past security devices. He cut his way into the vault and snatched the target holocron, escaping in broad daylight thanks to a well-worn Jedi robe, and a lot of nerve. Bane was unable to open the holocron -- only a Jedi could do that -- so, he needed a Jedi.

Equipped with a Separatist warship and battle droids at his command, Cad captured Jedi Master Bolla Ropal, keeper of the Kyber Crystal, from Devaron. Bolla refused to open the holocron -- a device that could read the crystal. The evil Bane tortured Master Bolla to death.

Now an enemy of the Jedi Knights, Cad Bane's warship came under attack by Anakin Skywalker. Anakin, Ahsoka and their clone troopers infiltrated the vessel. Their extended chase of Bane led to a gunfight in a weapons bay in zero-gravity, where Bane's rocket boots gave him a distinct advantage.

Bane got the jump on the impetuous Ahsoka, and zapped her unconscious with a stun charge. Bane locked Ahsoka up in an airlock, threatening to blow her out into space unless Anakin opened the holocron. Skywalker would not risk Ahsoka's life, so he agreed to Bane's term.

Bane once again escaped Jedi capture. This time, he killed a clone trooper, Denal, and took his armor. He blended into the clone trooper ranks, and it was not until someone spotted alien blood leaking from his armor did anyone realize it was Bane. Cad caught Anakin by surprise and stole a Republic starfighter, rocketing away from Jedi pursuit.

With the data on the Kyber Crystal decoded, Bane's next assignment came from Darth Sidious. The crystal included a list of all known Force-sensitive children -- prospective Jedi -- in the Republic. A sinister plot by Sidious required Bane to kidnap these babies. One of Bane's targets was the infant Wee Dunn on Rodia.

Bane's next quarry was the Gungan child, Roo-Roo Page, of Jan-gwa city on Naboo. Anakin and Ahsoka were able to anticipate Bane's strike, and Ahsoka got the jump on the bounty hunter, paying him back for the earlier airlock incident. Bane was taken into Jedi custody.

With his sharp mind, Bane is usually resistant to Jedi mind tricks -- but not even he could withstand mental probing from three Jedi Knights. Anakin, Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi combined their efforts to interrogate Bane. Cad couldn't take the strain, and agreed to take the Jedi to his secret base.

At Black Stall station, Bane leads Obi-Wan and Mace directly into a trap. Bane's advanced anti-intruder systems kept the Jedi occupied with laser traps and auto-turrets, while Bane bolted into a waiting escape pod. He triggered the station to explode as he fled.

Sometime later, Bane was hired by the Hutt crime family for a very risky endeavor: attacking the Senate building. Bane needed to do some research before so dangerous assignment. With a rebuilt Todo 360, he lured R2-D2 and C-3PO into his custody, and probed their memory circuits before dumping them back on the streets, their minds wiped of the encounter. Bane ended up with complete schematics for the Senate complex.

Bane then hired a posse of hunters -- including Aurra Sing, Robonino and Shahan Alama -- to storm the Senate. Bane held a number of prominent Senators hostage while demanding an audience with no less than Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Bane then demanded the release of Ziro the Hutt. With well-placed explosives covering his retreat, Bane escaped the Senate and delivered Ziro to the angry Hutts on Nal Hutta.

Ziro had betrayed his family for his own selfish ends, but craftily avoided punishment as he was the sole keeper of a holo-diary with many incriminating secrets held within. Ziro escaped punishment with help of his girlfriend, Sy Snootles, and Cad once again took up the hunt, chasing Ziro across the critter-filled bayous of Nal Hutta.

The hunt took Cad to Teth, where he was surprised to find Ziro already dead -- betrayed and murdered by Sy Snootles. Cad hated it when someone else did his job. To make matters worse, he had to tangle with two nosy Jedi Knights -- Obi-Wan Kenobi and Quinlan Vos -- before leaving the planet.

Obi-Wan tangled with Bane again while trying to untangle a plot to assassinate Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. The plan’s mastermind, Moralo Eval, had been captured and imprisoned on Coruscant, but the Jedi Council feared the plot had already been set in motion, and sent Obi-Wan into prison disguised as sniper Rako Hardeen. Obi-Wan won Eval’s trust, but Bane sensed something was off about Hardeen.

Bane was undercover himself – he’d arranged his own capture to spring Eval from prison. The bounty hunter instigated a prison riot and then escaped in the resulting chaos. Obi-Wan caught up with Bane and Eval as they made their getaway, and Eval insisted that “Rako Hardeen” come with them, saying he might be useful in the assassination plot.

The fugitives fled to Nal Hutta, where Bane tried to part ways with Obi-Wan, knocking him unconscious with a blast of gas. Bane remained suspicious of the newcomer, but Obi-Wan won over Eval and earned the right to be considered a full partner in the plan.

Anakin Skywalker, however, didn’t know that Obi-Wan was undercover – he thought his former master was dead and Rako had killed him. Anakin pursued the hunters relentlessly, and brawled with Bane on the Hutt world of Orondia.

Bane, Eval and “Rako” escaped Hutt Space and reached Serenno, where Bane and Rako joined nine other bounty hunters in the Box, an arena designed by Eval to test a hunter’s mettle. A 12th hunter, Bulduga, was already dead – Bane had killed the Ithorian gunslinger and taken his wide-brimmed hat as a replacement for the one he’d had to surrender on Coruscant.

Obi-Wan proved himself in the Box, but his resourcefulness threatened Eval, who decided to do away with him. Eval cheated to kill Obi-Wan, but Bane saved him, growling that if Eval were going to kill his rival he should “do it like a man.” Obi-Wan then bested Eval in single combat, earning a role in the assassination plot.

Bane and his five hand-picked hunters – “Rako,” Eval, Embo, Twazzi and Derrown -- traveled to Naboo to kill Palpatine. They infiltrated a warehouse in the city of Theed and met with Count Dooku to go over their plan.

Obi-Wan revealed the plan to the Jedi, but the plot against Palpatine almost succeeded anyway. Obi-Wan intercepted Bane and Palpatine before the bounty hunter could get away. After a brief scuffle, the Jedi took Bane into custody. The fearsome hunter was going back to prison – but for how long?