OK, anyway... back to the game... I know who was sending the pirates... or at least I'm pretty sure. I didn't think about it at the time, but the pirates kept trying to attack one of my less undefended worlds near the back of my system.... but no enemy scout ship had come near that planet yet....
Now I'm not positive how every race works when hiring pirates... but assuming the AI player purchasing the raid can pick their target, this means it could only be one of the two Advent races using a Revelation cap ship with Clairvoyance... No-one else could have known that planet existed, but a Revelation could have found it without ever leaving home.
And when I looked, the Advent Loyalists really, really hated me... something like -12.5. way beyond any of the other races, especially the Advent Rebels, they were just starting to reach out to me in fact... so if I was to venture a guess, my $$$ is on the Advent Loyalists who are buying the pirates to screw with me.....
This being the case, I also know who I will be coming back after first... bwwahahahaha!!!