Cad Bane was a Duros male who was born on the planet of Duro during the last decades of the Galactic Republic. He became a bounty hunter, earning a reputation as the galaxy's preeminent mercenary who operated solely for the financial reward of his missions. Bane worked for the highest bidder, and cared little for who employed him as long as he continued to get his pay. If his quarry offered him a better fee, Bane had no qualms with turning on his original employer. Bane was in operation during the Clone Wars, and by the time Jango Fett—the bounty hunter considered to be the galaxy's best—perished in 22 BBY during the opening battle of the war, 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.
Around 22 BBY, Bane was hired to break the Republic captive Ziro Desilijic Tiure out of prison on the galactic capital of Coruscant. The Duros assembled a team of hunters and captured members of the Galactic Senate in their headquarters on Coruscant, forcing Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to free Ziro.
Bane was later employed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems and its Head of State, Count Dooku, for several missions. On one assignment from Dooku's Sith Master, Darth Sidious, Bane stole a holocron containing information on potential Force-sensitive infants from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. He then kidnapped the infants and brought them to the planet of Mustafar, where Sidous planned to use them for his own purposes. At some point, the Duros was given the heavily modified Porax-38 starfighter Xanadu Blood by the Confederacy as partial payment for his work.