What does it mean when ships turn RED?

[Grot]

Hello,

during battles with one particular race some of my ships turn red and then start attacking me, its not boarding parties (at least I don't see the boarding pods), is it psionics? Or is it some sort of cyber attack? What is the best way to counter it?

Thanks

[RandomBlue]

They're enraged, have your hunter tranq shot them.

[Honorable_D]

Red means they're suffering crew deaths. Usually you need to drop the ship to lowest speed or it'll keep suffering crew loss until its dead in space.

[Nighteyes]

Are you sure there were no boarding pods? I think I saw a slight size difference versus rockets when I experienced such events, but it is not much of a size difference and I am not 100% sure. (Use commanders with True Believe and alike to reduce the effectivness of such attacks.)
Disagree with prior comment, if the color switches to the opponents color the ships are actually controlled by the opponent. It seems that the enemy is not getting the conroll over the propulsion therefore make sure you keep out of range (or destroy them).
I did not see the ships reappear in the opponents fleet afterwards, but I assume that the opponent can salvage technology from these ships, if he wins the overall battle.

[Rossinna-Sama]

If it was BRs or Drones, it was the Subversion tech doing its job of hacking them and turning them against you.

If it was ships, then they got Mind Controlled, which is a very high-end Psi power.

Boarding pods change the ship color to whatever faction took over it, but they kill the crew and disable the engines though they do man the ships weapons.

If the ship is flashing red, then as Honorable_D said, they are taking crew casualties over time.