15.05.2018 18:43:30] tC-Nazara: "I am superior."
[15.05.2018 18:43:41] A/)-Dryad: Reading you curator, welcome to the party.
[15.05.2018 18:43:57] Ahura: "We doubt you are."
My character was communicating their worldview that Gammian sentinels are roughly cognitively equivalent. That's a long way from: "Let's start rootin' tootin' shootin' up this saloon".
I was halfway through elaborating on that statement when my snub got lit up by cruiser batteries.
Essentially I didn't have any wording out there which told me, unambiguously, that your character wanted to start a fight, or even viewed me as a hostile, which is a pre-requisite for having "time to react".
Here's an example of what could have worked:
tC-Nazara: *The Sentinel targets Ahura with its STEM batteries, its weapons charged, ready to fire.*
See, I didn't see anything like that, so I was still in "Oh cool, another AI, let's chat" mode when my shield and hull evaporated. Then you stopped firing and told me my weapons were ineffectual, you didn't move and try to leave the fight, so I assumed you engaging me was a mistake, so I stopped.
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)