So I was in Jalik working away at waxing TyCorp Assaults. I was out around 2500-3000m out, having killed one of the two that was fighting me. All of a sudden the other bot disengaged and started flying away, I checked my radar and it didn't have a new buddy coming out to help, so I pursued it (I had to boost to keep up) and started blasting it, then spontaneously exploded, saying it had killed me, even though I had fairly good hull and wasn't taking damage. It also couldn't have caught me in its blast as I didn't get a message for having killed it.

lag

Right on

I don't think so, my connection is pretty clean, and it wasn't lagging when the bot all of a sudden started flying away and not shooting at me --not that lag would explain that even if it was.

you were unsynched with the server for a moment. Your client displayed the bot on its last known course and activity (flying in a straihgt line) when your client re-synched, the damage the bot was doing to you according to the server kicked in all at once.

It happens occasionally.

damn, that's pretty shatty.

its internet gaming. its a problem inherent in any MMO

Vendetta is actually a very stable game.

its not inherent that you can get shot during lag.

It is if the server controls what the bots are doing, and not the client, because you're lagging, the server isn't getting the information of what you're doing, so it projects your ship on its last known vector, making it an easy target for the bots who aren't lagging.