Q:

Savage Worlds vs. Traveller for a Science Fiction Campaign

I'm thinking of starting up a RPG group with some similarly minded friends, but unfortunately, we're not 100% on which setting to go with. 
I'm going to be GMing the group, and its fallen to me to look into which system to use, but I'm 50/50 on which to use.
Specifically, the current idea is to run a sort of Battlestar Galactica–style campaign, where the PCs start on a isolated planet in the far reaches of space, hunting a big gribbly alien, which turns out just to be the vanguard of a bigger invasion fleet. PCs then have to run away and try and get news to the rest of humanity before they get eaten.
Problem is they're deep in pirate infested space and nobody else knows about the aliens. 
The campaign therefore will include space battles, investigating planets, hunting bugs, all sorts of political intrigue and straight up battles with all sorts of enemies. All of the characters will be pretty competent — they're all ex mil/bounty hunter, etc. and they're hunting this thing for a big bonus, then have to flee in their own ships. By own ships, think "Millennium Falcon" or "Slave One".
I've got some ideas on how I'm going to run it, and I've narrowed the selections down to two — Traveller and Savage Worlds.
From my understanding so far, Savage Worlds is going to be good for us as we're all pretty new, and the Savage Worlds ruleset is quite quick to pick up. The issue is, I'm not sure how well it'll work with the space battle elements. It's also a system we can adapt to other campaigns — there's interest in superhero and all sorts of other campaigns been registered for further down the line.
From my limited knowledge of Traveller, the setting and style lends itself well to the space-side of things but we're not sure how it'll cope with the more planetary based stuff. We're also considering using both systems, but that'll get confusing fast!
We want some cybernetics and (obviously) aliens, but magic isn't something we're interested in including. Psychic powers are not really a massive issue either way.
Does anyone have any experience playing either of these systems in a similar setting? 
How well did it work, and what were the strengths and weaknesses of the system you used?
Alternatively, does anyone have a better idea for a system to use?

A:

In my opinion, Savage Worlds only works for settings where the following are true:

The heroes are competent
Combat is going to be an important, and relatively frequent, part of the gameplay

If your setting requires that heroes be incompetent (the same way that Warhammer 40,000 does) or if combat is going to be a rare occurrence to be avoided, you are going to be feeling like Savage Worlds is pushing you to a style of play that you aren't wanting.
Traveller (I only have experience with Mongoose Traveller) can still work well if either of those are not true. Combat is generally very lethal in Traveller, so it's a big deal if you get in a fight. Also if you put a limit on how many terms a character is allowed to use during character creation, you can more easily create characters who are unprepared for the fight ahead.
The other important thing to consider is advancement. In Savage Worlds, characters are expected to improve every few sessions and over the course of a campaign will become much more competent. In Traveller, advancement is very slow, taking many in-game months to improve a single skill. You aren't going to have zero to hero stories with Traveller.
As for space combat, I haven't played them extensively but they seemed about equal to me (assuming you are using the space combat rules from the Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion). However, you can probably adapt one or the other pretty easily. For instance, you can use the Mongoose Traveller spaceship rules with Savage Worlds characters by substituting equivalent skill rolls (e.g. "Heavy Weapons" = "Shooting").
EDIT: You mentioned in the comments that all players are intended to be ex-military or bounty hunters. However, Traveller has random character generation (with some influence from players). If the players tries to enter the Bounty Hunter career or one of the military careers and either fails their qualification rolls or is ejected from the career, then you may be in a tight spot as they cannot actually be the character concept you are intending them to be. Savage Worlds allows players to have complete control over their characters, which means players can certainly be the sort of characters that you want them to be.
It's also worth noting that ships in Traveller are generally operated like 17th Century sailing vessels. They are large things operated by a crew of people, rather than by an individual. One-man ships like X-Wings, or even small crew ships like the Millennium Falcon, are pretty rare or are underpowered. The Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion mostly makes this assumption as well, but you can more easily build a Millennium Falcon style ship that can be operated by a crew of 2 or so.

