[AGoetz]

No, the Raiders weren't working. When I showed up they had plenty of tech, but no ships or units. As a Nomad they also had no colonies other than their Homeworld. It was an easy task to load a transport with some of keep-the-peace troops and take them.
Problem : far too easy
Benefit : at least doubled my productive worlds as I can now fully exploit H2 and O2 planets.

Game update : the Markab started RCEing Last night. I've turned off their Design Minister as I'm not ready for the game to end (it's the usual suspect, Ultra Efficent Fusion Engines). Once I've researched a bit more of the advanced armors as well as finished off the ECM/Sensor techs I'll be putting together an annilation fleet to speed the game up - when there are 3 AIs with over 350 ships it takes ages to process a turn.