After blundering into somebodys home sector with 1 non-shielded planet and 50k def figs I tried to retreat and got a message I have not seen before. "sorry, but you have nowhere to retreat to". It was not a sector that had no warps out, there appeared to be a choice of 5 non- occupied sectors to warp to. What causes this?

only thing I can think of is that it was a one way into that sector and the 5 non occupied sectors had a fig in them. just a guess.

It doesn't matter if the 5 sectors that you COULD see had anything in them or not. When retreating you can only go to your previous sector, and if you came through a one way, your out of luck. However, if you get podded then you get a free trip to your previous sector even if you did come through a one way, twarp, or anything. Now even this rule has an acception, if someone sticks a fig in your previous sector and all surrounding sectors around you, then if they pod you your pod is going no where.

More than you asked for but thats the answer.