Breezewood witnessed the first fight. I think the core issue here is that the FTP ships and Ridgenose both thought they were acting in character and that the other sides was going against the unspoken rules of the server. It cuts to the heart of the eternal conflict of Discovery: balancing the PVP and the RP elements of what we do.
On the FTP front, they didn't respond to Ridgenose's banter, which is a shame as I was enjoying the tense but civil conversation we were having at the gate. To be fair to FTP, Ridgenose broke off to engage them, it's not like FTP dropped a Gunboat in the middle of our conversation to spoil our fun. Ridgenose felt they were acting to character given the rules of the world. Pilots exchange jabs before they exchange laser blasts, even if their ID's clearly spell them out as enemies. As a player who favors RP over pew-pew myself, I appreciate that mindset. Ridgenose was the second time I was stopped on my journey that night. The first time I lost a few million in the Omegas to a taciturn Junker. The second time I swapped a cigar for a back and forth on the Liberty and Rheinland civil wars. I found one much more satisfying than the other, to the point where I was glad I didn't have a completely uneventful flight. For certain players, the trading of barbs and the battle of wits IS the game, and the dogfighting is entirely secondary.
In contrast, I also see why FTP felt they were acting true to character. They're minding their own business out in the fields and see a member of a known hostile group (xenos in general, XA in particular) shooting the breeze with the Navy. When the Xeno disengages, the navy does nothing to protect them. So FTP calls in the big guns to deal with the threat rather than chit-chat. It's a reasonable escalation given the situation, and heaven knows we've all had times where we've started to type only to be blasted out of the sky. It's very exposing to have your hands on your keyboard and not your mouse, especially when you KNOW it's going to end in conflict anyway. Breezewood always stops as a matter of policy, no matter the threat, because I enjoy the banter more than the chase. Not every Orbital captain thinks that way, though, and the line between what is sufficient RP is terribly blurred. Other factions, I imagine, have a similar split of players.
So yes, I would have liked to have seen a few more sentences out of FTP to make their intentions clear. A simple "If the navy won't, we will," gives a lot more color to that fight and makes everyone happy (and could have given a kick-ass line to steal for a Wanderlust article). But I totally get why they acted how they acted, and can sympathize with bringing out the big guns to win the day. The kicker is we are all game content for each other, and we should always be aiming to make the server a fun experience for other players, even at the cost of ourselves. Every time Breezewood gets hit, it makes some pirate's day, and I get a little thrill out of resolving the tense stand-off so everyone wins. I think the only thing that needs to really be said here for FTP is a few lines of dialogue go a long way to differentiating a PC from an abnormally well armed and well piloted NPC. Make yourselves memorable, and the server will welcome you with open arms. For instance, I've enjoyed FTP's work trying to find a missing liner for Orbital.
As for bringing a gunboat to a dogfight, you really can't hold breaking an unwritten rule against a group when it's unwritten. Bringing in an ally to scare off a fighter is perfectly acceptable in my book, though I would let the fighters have their fun for a bit before intervening. Admittedly the bar for a group going for officialdom is higher than one that already has it, but asymmetrical fights are a part of the game everywhere save Connecticut.
