Had my first couple of sentinel battles. Previously, I have ignored them: I’d seen a small one patrolling on my first world; a small one plus a dog-type defending a manufacturing plant with reinforced doors and 3 small ones defending a resource centre.
This time a single small one was loitering and I needed to mine uranium. The instructions said to kill them quickly before reinforcements turn up. So I destroyed it after 3-4 shots and reinforcements turned up, so I flew safely away.
During my second encounter, I knew taking the two gravitino balls I had spotted would attract sentinel attention, so I was prepared. I wasn’t really expecting a level 3 instant alert though! So, I flew away again, after hearing some stomping sounds, without actually spotting what was pursuing me. They continued to chase me… into space… and disabled my pulse drive preventing my escape. So I boosted through an asteroid field (in my large shuttle) and eventually outran them, so I could warp to the space station.
Never saw what was pursuing me. I think they fired a few shots but I don’t think I was hit.
Internet says that you cannot prevent reinforcements by killing sentinels quickly. 😆
Edit: Apparently, at level 3, I had 2 Armoured Drones, 1 Sentinel Quad pursuing me on the ground and 4 Sentinel Starships in space!