Thanks for asking
Resupply has been accomplished in three ways:
1) Theft. My fleet captures a ship, which the AI keeps fully supplied. He then graciously shares said supplies with my ships, before being sent to the homeworld to be scrapped/analysed/retrofitted
2) Transfer from homeworld. Every retrofitted ship gets full supplies when it returns for the operation. Returning to the fleet supplies the fleet. Occasionally, a large fraction of the fleet will return home for supplies, and regular ships need upgrades every now and then.
3) Supply pods
With the New tech graciously supplied by the yellow crystal aliens, Supply ships have come into service. These hold 2 Resupply pods (4000 supplies), and repair bays, which fix the pods each turn. This easily maintains the fleets, which can now retrofit alien ships on their own, due to the doozer construction ships that have been sent.
----------------------------
Revelation for Pirates intel problem
THE INTEL PROBLEM IS NO MORE!
the simple solution to any intel woes is to abandon all your planets.
With no path to your planets (since you have none) other players will lose contact with you, preventing intel ops!
Booyah!
Since my pirates need no planets to survive, we're all set once we have a defended, hidden base.