Had pirates attack one of my planets which had no defence forces on, just civilians. I noticed they immediately start bombing them to the stone age.

Why would pirates do this without blackmailing for cash first? `Give us all ya moneyyy and good stuff or we bomb ya to pieces, land lubbers!`

If the civilians refuse (you say `No!`), then the prates proceed to bomb the heck out of the planet. If you do pay them what they demand then they leave the planet alone for a bit... or maybe not. Such is the way of pirates.

There`s no point being a pirate if you bomb everything and kill everyone before even trying to get some cash out of them first!

So true.

Yea, but logic gets ignored by the Devs.