TL;DR: careful running missions where the target system minor faction is at war. You help one, the other one hates you for it.
Here's the background story: I picked up a Rep++++ mission as I work to "ally" myself with a minor faction. The mission's target minor faction is at war in their system. No problem, I thought, that's not my problem. Well, it is. I dropped my courier package, got my Rep++++ reward, the target minor faction was happy…. but their rival was not.
Maybe I hit a rare case of angry NPCs, maybe the RNGeezus doesn't like me, don't know. Suffice to say, the other minor faction, which is in the midst of an all-out war, thought it equitable to spare NINE (!) Anacondas to chase after me. That's right, they sent 9 Anacondas in rapid succession. Each interdicted me as soon as I entered supercruise. I mean, instantly, following FSD.
The strange thing is that I was not carrying any cargo at the time. I did have a cargo mission that I had completed yesterday but had not handed in yet. It was that mission giver that alerted me of the incoming enemies. For all intents and purposes, the scenario behaved as if I had that mission's cargo onboard (see some of the NPC dialog below).
Lucky for me, I was running the Rep missions in my "combat" ship. I normally run these in my zippy Cobra that would have been eaten alive by the 9 Anacondas. Bottom line, don't run these missions on a cargo hauler as it might not go well.
PS: To honor the 9 deaths from the "Children of Anarchy" minor faction, let's read their names aloud:
- Ringo "I'm coming for you!" Melone
- Artemis "I'll pick your bones clean, greenhorn" Akesoli
- Hogso "I knew I'd find you eventually, all that tasty cargo!"
- Ecurb "That's the ship I'm looking for, the one with the big haul…" Le'Toub
- Max "You will keep your life if you hand over any valuable cargo you have" Werler
- Whiteshark "You choose death then. Very well"
- John "Big haul like that, surprised you made it this far"
- Alan "I've found my next target and it's you, Commander" Turing
- Kachi "The rumour was right… good job I found you first"
