My warped mind just hatched a crazy, crazy plan for Simple, and before the smarter parts of my brain make a deep analysis of it, I'd like your opinion of the legality.

In short: I might gift some minerals to the Protectorate.

Executive summary: Fill a freighter or two with minerals. (Standard freighter design; no special design name like "HereHaveSome.") Send the freighter to enemy planet, with w1 unload orders. Depending on size of local garrison, might need to accompany with small armed force to give the freighters time to disengage.

Strategic benefit: my enemy's enemy is my friend. The Protectorate are fighting a hot war on their far border against the Elementals. My universe intel leads me to believe that the Elementals are ranked either first or second. The other first or second place is probably the Humanoids, with whom I may shortly be in a hot war, on my far border from the Protectorate. I believe the Elementals have the upper hand against the Protectorate and will eventually prevail, but the longer it takes for that to happen while I am engaged against the Humanoids, the better things are for me in the long run. If I give the Protectorate a significant amount of minerals, they will better be able to prolong their struggle.

So, the question for you: would such an act be tantamount to communication?

It's communication of a sort, but I'm far from thinking that it is clear violation. cooperation without communication...

I'm not convinced this is counter indicated. You can't gift ships, due to diplomatic settings.
Use of standard freighters reduces any "comms" aspect. You're just gifting materials - unasked, unthanked...

As an aside it's almost not worth escorting the freighters...

Also as an aside it would make later invasion easier - the Protectorate might suspect another gift

Alright then, I'll make my full strategic analysis of the option.

Escorting the freighters potentially saves 2/3 of the cargo from becoming scrap. The escort would be counter productive if he sees it coming, since he'll send warships to defend, but no worries--I'll be invisible (ultra cloaks, how I love thee). Escort fleet strength will just be the minimum required to stall his garrison while the freighters escape. I might actually build a special ship for the purpose. Lots of dp, one x-ray. Probably a cruiser full of bears. I'd be tempted to call it Tank or Sponge or Speed Bump or Target or Armed Ship or something else clever, but I'll stick to my in-game naming convention.

Ah, I see the point.

And yes, invisibility will help you not be defended against. Presume you are at "tension" with the P?

Tension is the base state in no-comms.

I took Gollum from him in 2452 with a surprise packet attack. Two years later I fended off his initial counterattack fleet. Since then we have had no battles (aside from my occasional chaff pings and him killing an old cloaked ff). He built up a decent mixed bb/cc fleet, with a lot of bombers, and had them in place to launch another counterattack on Gollum (with a potential fork position against one of my developed worlds), but pressure on his other side from the Elementals forced him to redeploy that fleet in 2459.

He has left Dalmatian entirely undefended ever since I took Gollum, but I haven't had the spare resources to build bombers or fling a packet. The Gollum/Dalmatian dya