So I started a single-player. six-way FFA today and played as the TEC Rebels. I played for a little while, researching Truce Among Rouges because I liked the idea of having neutral forces as a temporary buffer for my planets. Eventually, the AI started slinging Novalith shots around, and they managed to kill the Pirate base.

I felt it would be pure awesomeness to colonize the pirate base with all the pirate ships around it, thinking that nobody would ever be able to take it from me (there were no other TEC Rebel factions in the game). So after I neutralized the hostile culture that was preventing me from colonizing it, I took the pirate base. That's where something funky happened.

That dramatic sound effect that plays whenever a pirate raid was about to happen began to loop every ten seconds or so, and I kept getting whispers from the pirate faction as if they were about to attack one of my planets. It kept doing this over and over for the rest of the match.