N00b question, but how do I respond to that?

I warped immediately to the system, appeared next to the fleet. Flew around them all, landed on three of the five, all the while the timer was counting down. Had the correct mission selected in "Log" (maybe obviously, or it wouldn't have been in the bottom corner), there were no Pirate beacons anywhere to be seen. The mission statement (click on it in "Log") was not helpful.

And here I was with a hankering to shoot a few pirates. And, while I'm pretty sure my 5-star fleet can handle a 3-star combat mission, I'm not looking forward to having to call back a busted up frigate or two.

Obviously, too late this time, but what the heck are you supposed to do?

Huh. Must have been bugged or something. I warped to the system (it was somewhere I had not yet been) and made a beeline for the fleet. Got in the middle of it, waited a while looking for the pirates, finally went over and landed on the flagship. Then I went to the combat escort frigate, then the ranking supply vessel, and was in the process of landing on the trader when the timer ran out, and I got the "You feggin loser!" message, or whatever it said.

Been getting a lot of weird stuff like that. They will reuse buildings like ruins and not reset the Large Crate. I can find the crate by just dropping down into the hole I dug last time, but I can't interact with it, and it doesn't show up on the scan. The gravatino balls and at least a few of the keys did respawn.

Or manufacturing facilities that already have the door blown off its hinges from the last time I was there. Makes it a lot easier. ;)

OK, got the cry for help again, and got just what you described. There was an icon in the middle of the group, and it triggered a pretty worthless band of pirates. No idea why they wanted my help. This was a combat patrol mission, and was a 5-star, stacked with A and B, so it should have been a cakewalk for them.

It is a choice of whether or not to participate in the "combat" or possibly having to repair frigates which is an annoyance. If frigate repairs are not made then the frigate might take more damage or even just disappear on a mission.