It's a coin toss

Wormholes are great. I love wormholes and their environment: no local, stealthy, isolated, no local. Did I mention no local? But time to time I will get an active connection to the empire. I ignore null-sec, because my fleet is not made for traveling through bubbles, but I do enjoy visiting low-sec. With mwd+cloak I can travel relatively safely. And while low-sec usually is inhabited by a cut-throat crowd, I feel more comfortable there than in null. May have something to do with my early EVE career as a pirate.

While visiting class 3 wormholes, I will often end up in random low-sec systems. This time I visit Derelik and first scan returns a Tengu with wrecks.

He is not at any of the anomalies or signatures so must be at a mission. I warp around the system to check out for any other ships. I don't feel very motivated to put too much effort in scanning and getting that Tengu. Local is mostly the same corp and they look rather aggressive judging by the killboard. There's no reason for me to stay here too long, but I decide to fuck around a little and combat scan the strategic cruiser. The Tengu warps out, but I do manage to get his position.

I don't rush to leave and instead, stalk the system for a little while longer. I can't help but feel that locals are scheming something. I see the Tengu warp to the site and back to the station. Then there's a Rifter warping around too. There are 4 people in local and 3 of them are from the same corp. I saw only two. I take a more detailed look at the killboard and see a lot of black ops drops. Especially the pilot that flies tackle cyno Proteus is in the system. I am very curious. Tengu is in a deadspace pocket and the covert cyno should not work. So why do I have this weird feeling about whole this situation?

I check the surrounding systems if there's any fleet waiting on standby. Nope, all clear. All connecting systems are dead. Maybe this guy is trying his luck? I decide to go for him. I park my Nestors on the wormhole, warp the Proteus close to the acceleration gate, align so I enter warp as soon as possible. Just as when my speed bar starts charging, a Proteus decloaks.

My gut was right. This is a trap. I still have about 2-3 seconds before I will enter warp. I must make a split second decision. I could stop my ship and let us tackle each other. The guy has 96% killboard efficiency and majority of kills are black ops drops. All surrounding systems are empty and he has only 2 corpmates in local. I know the corp can also field strong faction battleship fleets, but they would be at least 2 jumps out. So why is this guy attacking me? Do they really feel invincible in their area and think of me as nothing more than just a solo Proteus?

My instincts decide to leave myself in the hands of Bob. If this guy will manage to lock and tackle me, then it's a fight. If I manage to enter warp before that and don't get tackled by the Tengu on the other side, then it's a no fight. After the longest 3 seconds. my ship enters warp. I feel both, the sense of relief and the sense of disappointment of missed opportunity. I'm pretty sure this Proteus is brick tanked with a slave set. I simulate a fight in my mind. The fleet might have had enough time to cover those 2 or more jumps without much problem.