Oolite Bulletins

Earlier today I came across something I've never seen before, and a quick search on the wiki was fruitless, so, what was going on?
I dropped out of Hyperspace at (I think) a fairly high-tech Communist System, and was immediately attacked by 6-8 ships. All went 'red' on the scanner and several of them opened fire with what seemed like Military lasers. They were very accurate although at quite a distance. I got a lock on one quickly and it showed as a "Head Hunter (Clean)". I was all but dead by now so reluctantly used my Energy Bomb (Although I carry one, I don't really approve of WMDs).
This worked and 'removed' them all, but I didn't get any bounty, and remained 'Clean' myself.
But who or what are Head Hunters?
I'm currently on a 'Galactic Navy' OXP mission. Any connection (but no spoilers please)?

Edit:- Since then I've returned several times to this planet Zalaarce and each time meet these Headhunters, and each time I die a horrible death. They are very aggressive and very accurate and I've tried several crafty tactics (Cloaking device doesn't seem to help much and they seem to brush-off hardhead missiles). I have managed to take a few out, but never all in one go.
I'm sure they're part of my mission, so I'll just keep going back, and hopefully will manage to kill them all soon.

The headhunters are from the Galactic Navy mission to take out the pirate base if I remember right.

I just ran into them yesterday, on my way to the target system for the Galactic Navy mission that you're being offered after the 10th sortie. Same thing, they were all named head hunter, had a clean status, and fired at me. So in order to make sure that nobody sees me firing at a clean vessel and I keep my clean status I took them all out with an energy bomb

However, I didn't run across my target so far

Question with potential spoilers (mark to reveal):
I'm supposed to find this Mr. Kurtz onboard a behemoth if I recall correctly. What was the behemoth's name again? It isn't mentioned in the mission screen... Also, since there was no behemoth at the target system, is there still a chance to find it? If yes, where?

maik wrote:

I just ran into them yesterday, on my way to the target system for the Galactic Navy mission that you're being offered after the 10th sortie. Same thing, they were all named head hunter, had a clean status, and fired at me. So in order to make sure that nobody sees me firing at a clean vessel and I keep my clean status I took them all out with an energy bomb

However, I didn't run across my target so far

Question with potential spoilers (mark to reveal):
I'm supposed to find this Mr. Kurtz onboard a behemoth if I recall correctly. What was the behemoth's name again? It isn't mentioned in the mission screen... Also, since there was no behemoth at the target system, is there still a chance to find it? If yes, where?

Hi Maik,
I ended up doing the same (the energy bomb) and like you didn't find what I was looking for there, and indeed still haven't, so I'm just going about my normal business for now. I gather you just have to keep looking. Her name is "Nellie" by the way. Happy hunting