Thanks all for the replies. If there's no crime history then guess I'll just have to be a bit more careful when there's lots going on around me to think about, plus I've never really been in a similar situation so I was a bit panicky at the time, anything could have happened. I'll check my in-game logs to see if anything can be found there. I appreciate everyone trying to ascertain what may have happened but I wouldn't be able to confirm if anyone is right so I'll be leaving it at that, however, I have replied to some of your responses.
A couple of quick side questions:
Do the feds turn from green to red on the radar when attacking CMDR's?
Does using a Kill warrant Scanner with fast scan modification also speed up the regular scan?
Regarding the 1 ton demand: it only works if you drop before the pirate attacks you.
After that dropping doesn't do anything...
Good to know, this is the first time I've ever given in to their demands. I'm think one of them made an initial demand which I ignored hence their attack, a 2nd made a later demand which is the one I responded to to try and save my butt. I guess it was too late by then.
But what I did do was on a 2k-3k shot I accidentally hit a security ship. So naturally I was considered a pirate at that point the space po po hunted me. Don't shoot the space po po, they are also knuckleheads and will fly right into your line of fire, so watch out for 'clean' ships coming between you and your prey.
I've shot fed ships by accident a few times recently without response but yeah, it's possible I shot a clean ship. Would the feds attack me for an unsustained stray shot on a clean ship?
Was it a Haz Res or High (you mention both)? If high and you are not at least Cordial (I think) with the controlling faction then even the System Security ships will be red on your radar... SysSec take a very dim view of being shot at
I only mentioned a 'haz res (high)' so yeah it was one of them and I'm 100% allied with the controlling faction in that system. I was doing a massacre mission on a rival faction's members and it was them who tried to rob me (I have 0% rep with them).
If you use 3rd party tools will show more details.
ie ED Discovery shows the ship targeted and assault / murder bounty and faction.
I don't and wouldn't even know where to begin with that site's tools!
OP - you said you had a small bounty, 200cr. Was that when you went into the Res, or as a result of what happened? If you had it to begin with, you're playing with fire. Otherwise, sometimes security will go red and attack for no reason - I get it a lot when killing mission pirates. Otherwise, the 1t of stuff - was it cargo you already had, or did you pick it up in the ring? If you picked it up in the ring, it will show as illegal and will be illegal - if the filth scans you, they might attack you. It'll tell you in the bottom right of you have any illegal stuff on board, and I suspect this could be what happened. Or you shot a clean miner by mistake. Difficult to conclude without more info. Bad luck mate.
I've had the bounty for maybe a month now and since then have visited the very same system to do massacre missions on the same faction's pilots without incident a few times. Happily bounty hunted alongside the feds, using them as support so I didn't think my measly 200Cr bounty was a concern.
