Cad Bane

Cad Bane, formerly known as Colby, was a Duros bounty hunter and mercenary whose career spanned the fall of the Galactic Republic, the reign of the Galactic Empire, and the era of the New Republic. After the death of Jango Fett at the Battle of Geonosis, Bane was considered the best and most experienced bounty hunter of the era. A specialist in fighting Jedi, he was repeatedly employed by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, and he trained the young Boba Fett before the two became enemies. Decades later, Boba killed him in the streets of Mos Espa.

From street rat to bounty hunter#

Born a male Duros and once known as Colby, Bane grew up an orphan on the streets alongside his friend Niro. He first became involved in criminal activity when he joined the gangster Lazlo's gang. After Lazlo's death, Bane's infamy grew when he killed both a marshal and his former friend Niro in revenge, and he eventually turned to bounty hunting.

He gained a reputation as a famous bounty hunter and worked alongside the likes of Aurra Sing years before the Clone Wars. He came to hold high standing both within the underworld and among other bounty hunters. Bane was also a very skilled pilot. He flew a modified Rogue-class Porax-38 starfighter called the Xanadu Blood, wore his trademark wide-brimmed hat, and carried dual LL-30 blasters. His equipment included rocket boots to keep pace with Force-using Jedi and breathing tubes that allowed him to survive being Force choked.

The Clone Wars#

Although Bane operated before the war as well, his infamy grew during the Clone Wars in particular, when he specialized in fighting Jedi and dueled some of the most skilled among them. His reputation led Darth Sidious to employ him on numerous projects.

The most consequential was the theft of a holocron from the Jedi Temple. With the holocron in hand, Sidious tasked Bane with kidnapping Jedi Master Bolla Ropal so that the holocron could be combined with the kyber memory crystal Ropal held, which contained a list of Force-sensitive children throughout the galaxy. Bane led a ground attack on Devaron and captured both Ropal and the crystal. He then set out to abduct four of the children for a secret project on Mustafar, seizing the Rodian Wee Dunn and the Nautolan Zinn Toa before Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano arrested him as he tried to take Roo-Roo Page on Naboo. Aboard the Resolute, Masters Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi joined the interrogation, concluding that Bane feared his employer more than the Jedi. Feigning compliance, Bane led Windu, Kenobi, and Cody to a space station where he claimed the children and holocron were held, then sprang a trap and escaped.

Bane was also hired by Jabba the Hutt to free Jabba's uncle, Ziro Desilijic Tiure, from a Republic prison, and was later re-hired to track Ziro after he fled. He found Ziro dead on Teth, murdered by the singer Sy Snootles, and dueled Kenobi and Quinlan Vos with a variety of weapons and gadgets before once again evading capture. Later in the war, Sidious's apprentice Count Dooku brought Bane in to participate in the deadly challenge known as the Box. Bane survived and was appointed overseer of a plot to kidnap the Supreme Chancellor, but the scheme was foiled when Kenobi was revealed to have infiltrated the group disguised as the bounty hunter Rako Hardeen, and Bane was arrested along with the rest.

The Age of the Empire#

Bane remained active during the early reign of the Galactic Empire, continuing to work with the astromech droid Todo 360 at his side. He was hired by the Kaminoan Prime Minister Lama Su to retrieve an unaltered female clone named Omega. Although he initially succeeded, he was ultimately thwarted by the intervention of the bounty hunter Fennec Shand and the renegade Clone Force 99.

He continued his business with the Empire by collecting targets identified by their high midi-chlorian count, usually young children. He delivered these bounties to Imperial representatives at a station over Coruscant, from which the children were transported to the secret Tantiss Base. On one such job he traveled to the mountainous planet Caraad, incapacitated a child's mother, and had Todo load the youngling into a hovering pram before delivering the bounty.

Death on Tatooine#

Bane continued to sell his services to the highest bidder after the fall of the Empire and the rise of the New Republic. By 9 ABY he was working as an enforcer for the Pyke Syndicate on Tatooine, helping the cartel expand the spice trade onto the planet. Sent to Freetown after the local marshal Cobb Vanth stood against the Syndicate, Bane gunned down Vanth's deputy Scott and downed Vanth himself when the marshal refused a bribe, declaring that Tatooine was now under the Syndicate's control.

His career ended in a confrontation with his old apprentice, Boba Fett. Bane had trained Boba years earlier, though the young Fett suffered mistreatment and little affection from him, and the two had drifted apart. In the streets of Mos Espa, Boba defeated Bane and stabbed him through the chest, killing him. Bane was posthumously proven wrong in his belief that Cobb Vanth had died, as Vanth was resuscitated in Boba Fett's bacta pod.

Reputation#

Cold and cruel, Bane was remembered as the deadliest bounty hunter of the era following Jango Fett's demise. He believed that the Jedi had once always offered a fair fight, but came to think they had changed as the Clone Wars dragged on, no longer offering the fair fights he had once associated with them. The pirate Hondo Ohnaka mentioned Bane in his book, the Galactic Explorer's Guide.