Chapter 2 - Savanna Squadron

"United alliance this is Savanna squadron reporting in, we have discovered an unidentified ship in the Western Reaches, I ask permission to identify the ship." A male Cathar reported over the comlink in his helmet to his superior. The Cathar, Rysorr Si, waited for his superior to give him permission to check out the unidentified ship, he and his squadron flew in their x-wing Starfighters patrolling the Western Reaches. Rysorr was the leader of Savanna squad, which included two females from his own race, Nomyri Ja and Cylyxi Nhul, a Mirialan girl named Fokii and a Human teenager Jokin Antran. The rebels had discovered Rysorr when he attempted to free Nomyri and Cylyxi from a slaver and was caught by the slave masters henchmen. The rebels had helped them escape and offered to help them back to their planet but on their way to Cathar they were attacked by the Order and the three of them had offered to help fighting. Ever since they had stated with the rebels, fighting off slavery and stopping the order. After a few years they had proved to be worthy adversaries and were offered to pilot the x-wing Starfighters. At first they were just the three of them and so together they formed the Savanna squadron, but later they were introduced to some new members as new protocol wanted five x-wings in a squadron, due to their new enemy. Over time they had met and lost many x-wing pilots during fights until Fokii and Jokin joined them, who both were extraordinary pilots despite their age.

"Savanna squadron, this is Commander Kara Rieekan speaking, you have my permission to identify the ship, report back to me once you know more, over and out." The commander replied. Rysorr flipped a switch to activate the ships fighting mode, the x-wing Starfighter opened its wings and was ready to go.

"Alright Savanna squadron we are to engage the target, prepare your weapons and stay in formation." Rysorr ordered to his squadron. The others came in position and Rysorr looked at his left and right to see Nomyri and Cylyxi close his flanks, he checked his radar and both Fokii and Jokin closed their back and together they flew towards the unidentified ship. As they drew closer Rysorr noticed the ships model was an old one, a VCX – 820 escort freighter, at least that was what their scanners picked up.

"Savanna one, the unidentified ship appears to be a VCX – 820 escort freighter, these type of ships were most commonly used by smugglers in the old days" Nomyri reported to their wing leader.

"Wait aren't those VCX like ancient or something?" Jokin asked laughing since he couldn't imagine anyone flying such piece of scrap.

"There are very few of them still operational and in most cases they are used to smuggle weapons or slaves across the galaxy." Nomyri added trying to state all the information she knew about these kind of ships. As they drew closer Jokin kept going on and on about how that ship belonged at a junkyard and that a good smuggler would use a faster and better ship.

"Savanna four please shut your mouth, we are on a mission." Rysorr cut in, since Jokin,

"Sorry, Savanna one, I got carried away, Savanna four out." Jokin replied stopping his rambling. No matter how good Jokin was, he always kept going on about a subject too far. Rysorr usually let him ramble for a while especially if the mission wasn't too serious like this. It shouldn't cause them any trouble, especially if it were smugglers they wouldn't dare to attack five x-wings Starfighters since that would mean a fight they were bound to lose. But for some reason Rysorr felt that this VCX -820 was a different story and he took a deep breath to stay focused. They were almost within the standard communication range, Rysorr was planning to call the ship and ask for their ID and cargo information. If refused or they transported anything illegal they would have to come with them or they would have to use force.

"Savanna two here, my scanner picks up unusual weaponry, it seems that this VCX is modified with non-standard weapons, I suggest we stay cautious as we approach them for contact." Cylyxi reported in, warning her team.

"Roger that Savanna two" Rysorr said to confirm that he received the information. As they got within range he checked his readings quickly to see if any weapons were being activated but they didn't, so he tried to call them on.

"VCX - 820, service number one, five, six, nine, seven, zero, this is Savanna squadron from the New Alliance speaking, we would like to receive your data and would like to scan your ship, be warned if you decline or refuse to cooperate you are forced to come with us and if you use force, know that we are armed and ready to use offensive measures." Rysorr explained to the VCX-820, just as protocol would want them to. His squadron stayed in position keeping a safe distance in case the VCX would refuse their request but in all surprise a comlink was opened up to them.

"Greetings Savanna, we heard your request and are preparing a data transfer, you should receive it in a moment." A young female voice replied.

"VCX- 820, how about that scan, do we have permission to scan your ship while we wait for your data?" Rysorr asked trying to find out if this ship was worth their time.

"You are free to scan our ship, we have nothing to hide." The young female replied. With those words Savanna squadron came within scanning range. They received the data as promised so Rysorr gave the order for Nomyri and Cylyxi to scan the ship. Fokii and Jokin flew from their position next to Rysorr to keep their formation, while the other two were busy scanning the ship.

"Well that was easy." Jokin said to the others while they waited.

"Stay alert we aren't done yet." Fokii replied while reading through the VCX ships data. Fokii didn't find anything in particular until she noticed that the weapons on their readings didn't match the data.

"Savanna five here, there is something wrong with the data, the data shows weapons which are different from what our scanners picked up." Fokii reported to her team.

"VCX - 820 we received your data but we discovered that you use other weapons than what is stated in your ships data, care to explain?" Rysorr asked trying to figure out what the idea behind it was, it wasn't uncommon that weapons were replaced and not updated on the data list but just to make sure they weren't up to anything illegal.

"Oh I'm so sorry we recently had some repairs to our ship, we replaced the weapons since they were cheaper, but because we had a delivery to make we left in a hurry and forgot to update our data. The weapons share the same function like the ones in the data, they are just from a different brand." The young female replied explaining their choice. Rysorr thought for a moment, it was exactly as he predicted, they had simply changed the weapons and forgot to update the data, at least that was what they wanted them to believe, it was strange that such a young girl answered them and not their captain. He felt it in his guts that something was wrong with this ship.

"Savanna Two, Savanna three, what is the status of that scan." Rysorr asked trying to find a clue why his gut was keeping him so wary of this ship.

"Savanna two here, I finished scanning my side, I didn't detect much in the cargo hold and it appears they only have four life forms on board, two on the bridge and two in the main hold." Cylyxi reported.

"Savanna Five again sorry to interrupt but I discovered this ship is named the Scrounger, which once I inserted it in our database appears to be wanted for grave robbing." Fokii informed sending the data to Rysorr. He quickly read into the information and with a shock he looked up.

"Everyone in defensive position,, Savanna two, three fall back immediately!" Rysorr ordered to his squadron.

"Wait didn't you say they had four life forms? I detect a fifth, wait a sixth, of no!" Nomyri said before pulling hard to the side just in time to avoid the Scroungers laser cannons.

"Defensive positions! Return fire where needed." Rysorr ordered while shooting his x-wing lasers at the Scrounger. They had tried to trick them and for some reason they had managed to figure out that their illusion had failed before Savanna squadron could take measures, whoever was flying that ship, he sure damn well knew what he was doing. When Savanna two and three safely escaped the sudden attack they came back in formation with the others and now it was time for them to push their attack.

"Attack formation, focus fire on the Laser cannons." Rysorr said leading the way.

"Now this is more like it!" Jokin shouted over their comlinks as he was ready for some action. They all fired their lasers at the Scroungers side cannons but with no results.

"They have some sort of protective shield around their ship, our lasers won't do any damage unless we take out their shield generator." Fokii reported to her squad.

"Damn those grave robbers, they are more resourceful than I thought!" Rysorr growled in anger.

"Evasive formation and get me a soft spot as soon as possible." He added while evading some of the incoming laser fire. Rysorr sure didn't expect to encounter a wanted ship on their patrol and taking it in would serve more of a challenge than he had hoped in the beginning when they thought it they were just mere smugglers.

"Savanna One I found their shield generator, it should be right above their right engine." Fokii informed after having studied the Scroungers data, even if the data was falsified moving a shield generator would seem illogical as the engine room couldn't be in a different place. Savanna squadron prepared for a new attack, this time with the right engine as target.

"Prepare your missiles, fire at my signal." Rysorr said waiting for the others to line up in formation.

"Savanna Two, ready." Cylyxi reported closely followed by Nomyri and Fokii.

"Savanna Four ready to blast!" Jokin reported last, a bit too eager to fire his missiles.

"3..2..1..Fire!: Rysorr ordered and the missiles flew to their target. The missiles flew with incredible speed and the two gunners were firing at them to stop them. They managed to hit one and another one, but the first missile reached the shield and blew itself up on impact, the last two missiles hit the shield as well creating a hole, which was about to close again but Savanna squadron had fired an extra pair of missiles and while the gunners took some out again two missiles hit the right engine.

"Two missiles got a direct hit, the shield is going down, I repeat the shield is going down." Fokii reported.

"Alright now let's get those cannons." Rysorr said ready to give the order when suddenly his x-wings power started to flicker. Rysorr switched some buttons and tried to figure out what was wrong when he noticed that his controls weren't working anymore.

"This is Savanna one I seem to be having technical difficulties, Savanna two you take over command and take those cannons out." Rysorr started before Cylyxi interrupted him.

"Savanna two here, negative, I lost control over my x-wing, maybe the others can take over."

"Savanna Five here, it seems like they have infected our systems with that data they send about their ship, we are all out of the routine, Five out." Fokii reported back and almost immediately she heard Rysorr roar in anger and slamming onto his control panel. Savanna squadron had been taken out and all they could do was watch the Scrounger jump into hyperspace, away from them. They had some impressive technical engineer if he was able to shut down five ships at once with just some data. However they might have gotten away, but that jump to hyperspace would certainly put a lot of pressure on their ship with only one working engine, they sure would have a hard time if they jumped out of hyperspace, if they didn't collapse during the jump that was.

It had taken a couple of hours for before a cruiser was able to pick the Savanna Squadron from space and when they were finally there Rysorr had been summoned to the commander to explain how this happened. Meanwhile the remaining members of the Savanna squad were free to roam around.

Each were given a cabin so they could rest until their ships were fixed again, however this proved to be more difficult as the virus was active and spreading to any technology that docked into the system. They discovered this when two droids shut down once they had docked into the system, only by hand were the mechanics allowed to fix the ships. They had to take out the whole system and install a new one, as well as preserve the virus infected machines for further investigation. If this was a new form of weapon they had to figure out how it worked and how they could use it or protect themselves from it. Fokii entered Jokin's cabin and kicked against his bed to wake him up. Jokin yawned and crawled out of the bed, stretched and yawned again.

"Any news from the big guy?" He asked curious while finishing his stretch.

"No word yet, but Nomyri and Cylyxi are going to grab a bite and asked if we wanted to join them" Fokii explained walking back to the door.

"Sounds like a plan, I couldn't really sleep anyway, I keep thinking about how that ship might have had some super secret weapon on it and got away with it." Jokin said frustrated when he thought back about it.

"Well just leave it to Rysorr, I'm sure he is busy coming up with a plan with the commander to pin point their ship." Fokii replied gesturing him to get moving. Once they reached one of the cafeteria on the ship they were served the same old plain space food like always when in space, disgusting drinking boxes Jokin used to call them. As they placed their order a droid served it to them.

"Enjoy your meal." The droid beeped at them, although Jokin knew he wasn't going to enjoy this one bit. Shortly after they received their order they founds the remaining two members of Savanna squad sitting in a corner. Fokii and Jokin moved towards their friends when they picked up some other soldiers conversation.

"Did you hear about that Savanna squadron?" One of the soldiers said.

"No what about them?" the other soldier asked curious.

"I heard they screwed up a simple patrol mission, they break all of their ships and had to call for a pick up!" The first soldier said laughing.

"No way, how did they even manage to do that?" The second soldier asked surprised.

"I don't know, but I heard half of them are Cathar, proves that they aren't any good, maybe we should send them back to the slavers." The first soldier boasted laughing out loud. Jokin got extremely angry at this and wanted to teach them a lesson but Fokii stopped him.

"They are not worth a fight." Fokii said looking Jokin in the eyes. Jokin sighed, still angry but he knew she was probably right so he left it and joined his friend in the corner.

"Hey you two sure took your time." Nomyri said smiling, happy to see her friends.

"Yhea I had to drag him out of his bed." Fokii said joking, poking Jokin in his side. They all laughed, but Jokin made a fake smile as he kept thinking about what those soldiers were saying. He knew his team was the best there possibly was and if it wasn't for that stupid ship they wouldn't have had any issues at all. The New Alliance had people both from the Rebellion and the Order but apart from fighting against this new threat they kept having small conflicts among each other. The four of them talked about what their next mission could be, Cylyxi offered to get them something to drink, since it tasted better than the food so she went to the cafeteria to get a tray of drinks. On her way back Jokin watched it all happen, one of the soldiers tripped her on purpose and made her spill the drinks over the floor and than claimed she spilled it over his boots.

"You are going to pay for this!" The soldier said with an angry voice.

"I'm sorry I tripped over something." Cylyxi said apologizing. As she picked up the mugs from the floor.

"Why don't you come by my cabin later to pay your depth like your species did as the slaves they were." The soldier said laughing before he got knocked off his feet into some tables where some other soldiers were eating. Jokin had unleashed his anger and was punishing the soldier with his fists.

"You take that back and apologies to my friend, you piece of scum!" Jokin shouted trying to land another punch in his face. Unfortunately the other soldier had taken hold of him and dragged him back so his friend could get up. The other soldiers at that table were angry because of their spilled food and as they helped the other soldier up to his feet he found the chance to punch Jokin in his stomach as a little payback. Fokii and Nomyri had come to help but a load roar stopped them all.

"Enough, there will be no fighting among ourselves, if you want to fight so badly leave that for the true enemy out there." Rysorr said with a powerful voice. The whole cafeteria looked at them and as he drew closer the two soldiers whose food had been knocked over left, leaving the two who started the fight on their own.

"Who do you think you are fuzzball, your member over there owns me a new pair of boots and this dog of yours needs to be put on a leash." The soldier said cocky, which was the last thing he said before Rysorr gave him a punch in the face followed by a head butt knocking him unconscious. The soldier who was holding Jokin let him go and raised his hands as a sign that he didn't want to fight.

"Squadron time to go." Rysorr said with a strict voice as he stepped over the unconscious soldier and left for the door. His team followed him and the last thing Jokin saw was that the second soldier was trying to wake his friend up before they walked out of the cafeteria towards their new mission.