The Defias Blog

¶ I’d heard that, when in a time of extreme, insurmountable and inescapable danger, a pod pilot might simply shut down all of his ship’s primary and secondary systems, logging off his connection to the vessel through the unique interface created by the capsule technology.  The idea is that upon realizing that the pod pilot’s connection to the ship’s systems has been terminated, all of the ship’s available power will be diverted from all of its other systems to the warp drive, flinging the ship to a random point in space and effectively out of harm’s way.  This emergency warp, using all of the ship’s available power for the warp core, is generates a strong enough warp field to defeat any manner of warp scrambling.  This is called a “logoffski”.
¶ I’d also heard that, when a pod pilot uses this tactic to escape from harm, they must make sure that they have not come under fire already, because it takes much longer for the ship’s power to be diverted to the warp drive if it has recently been employed in defense of the ship whether it was being used to power weapons systems, shield systems or armor systems.  I’d heard that it can take up to fifteen minutes for a ship to enter emergency warp under these circumstances.  If a ship is sufficiently sturdy, it might just last the 15 minutes and escape destruction.
¶ I present to you a Tale of Two Logoffskis.

Setting the Stage

¶ In my corporation’s short history, we have gone far.  We tried our hand at being an empire war corporation, picking a soft and isk-fat target.  However, he wasn’t very bright; not even bright enough to get his corporation out of the situation he had opened himself up to.  We tried our hand at lowsec piracy, but at the time we were all too inexperienced.  So we went to 0.0 space, far from the restrictions and dangers of Empire space, and we flourished.  First in VENOM Alliance, and then in Anthrax Death.  Anthrax Death was born from the ashes of a failing VENOM.  Unfortunately, some of the reasons VENOM died have carried over, and [DFIAS] is transitioning to another alliance - DEFI4NT, lead by ms kypp’s The Insurgency corporation.  Hopefully this will be the last alliance we join.  If we join another, it may just be one we create ourselves.
¶ When transitioning between one alliance and another, your corporation must be subjected to a twenty-four hour period of independence.  As such, we could not simply enter into <DEFY> and get on with our business in 0.0; despite my efforts to make arrangements with the rest of the locals, a couple of the people with whom I needed to arrange standings could not be reached in time so I gave the order for my pilots to spend the next 24 hours in Empire or risk destruction at the hands of entities who would appear to be ‘blue.’  So it was that I was in Empire space, looking for profit, trouble or both.
¶ I’ve mentioned in this chronicle before that I found plenty of fun to be had in the Amarr and Ammatar regions, so after finding no fun in Molden Heath, I took my Wolf to Derelik.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Note: I don’t know that the following conversation took place before our chance meeting, but I suspect that something similar must have.

¶  It was a normal night, like any other, and a couple of friends in rookie corporation decided to go out for a spot of fun at the expense of Sansha’s Nation patrols.

Captain Salina >  Hey, Burrk, what’s going on?
Lt Burrk > Not much, Captain.  Just figured on taking my Omen out for a spin through the belts.
Captain Salina >  Oh, really?  Whereabout?
Lt Burrk  >  Khabi - a low security system in Derelik.  I’m hoping I might be able to bait out a True Sansha commander and get something nice in the process!
Captain Salina > Low security, eh…  you’d better fit a good warp core stabilizer.  I use the Tech 2 variant, myself.
Lt Burrk > I haven’t got the skill to use the Tech 2 WCS myself, but I do use the best named, ‘Halcyon’ Core Equalizer I.
Captain Salina > That’s my boy!  But still, maybe I’d better bring my Typhoon out with you, just in case you run into trouble.
Lt Burrk > The more the merrier!  This ought to be fun.  I hope we don’t get attacked by any pirates, but we should be safe anyway with our best named and Tech 2 WCS fitted.
Captain Salina > What’s the worst that could happen?

¶ Meanwhile, elsewhere in New Eden, I was…

Hunting

¶ As I made the rounds through the low security areas of Molden Heath and into Derelik, finding no viable targets for my assault frigate I was in constant communication with members of my corporation Geihst and Myasthenia Gravis, both of whom can fly stealth bombers.  Geihst was trapped far behind enemy lines, having not taken my advice and gotten out of 0.0 for the 24 hour transition period.  Myasthenia was only 10 jumps or so away from my position and making good time.  I checked a couple of nearby DED-rated complexes belonging to Sansha’s Nation in high security Derelik then made my way back into lowsec with the intention of rendezvousing with Myas and heading into Great Wildlands to test the potency of the Wolf/Hound combination on something tough.  On my way through Khabi, I glanced at the Directional Scanner and saw a Typhoon and an Omen.

?[ 2008.05.07 03:19:04 ] Myasthenia Gravis > Havo how many points you got on your wolf? My hound has 0 tackling.
?[ 2008.05.07 03:19:17 ] Havohej > 2
?[ 2008.05.07 03:19:27 ] Havohej > Warp Scrambler II
?[ 2008.05.07 03:20:00 ] Myasthenia Gravis > Yeah I have a faint epsilon on mine… also 2 pts. Want me to slap a webber on it and bring the wolf?
?[ 2008.05.07 03:20:11 ] Havohej > sure
?[ 2008.05.07 03:22:13 ] Myasthenia Gravis > In route
?[ 2008.05.07 03:22:34 ] Havohej > come to khabi
?[ 2008.05.07 03:22:40 ] Havohej > omen and phoon, seem to both be in belt
?[ 2008.05.07 03:22:44 ] Havohej > doing idk what…
?[ 2008.05.07 03:22:57 ] Havohej > going to investigate
?[ 2008.05.07 03:24:28 ] Havohej > hmmm
?[ 2008.05.07 03:25:17 ] Havohej > how far from khabi  ?
?[ 2008.05.07 03:25:23 ] Myasthenia Gravis > I’m fucked… got caught in Bosena
?[ 2008.05.07 03:25:39 ] Havohej > meh
?[ 2008.05.07 03:26:11 ] Myasthenia Gravis > And podded.

¶ I narrowed the ‘phoon and Omen down to a belt and warped in at 100km.  To my surprise, the overview registered only 3 drones, the two target vessels, and three wrecks belonging to Sansha’s Nation which Captain Salina and Lt Burrk were looting.  I warped back to the nearest planet and Captain Salina spoke on the Local communications channel.

?[ 2008.05.07 03:18:39 ] EVE System > Channel changed to Khabi Local Channel
?[ 2008.05.07 03:24:10 ] Captain Salina > hi
?[ 2008.05.07 03:24:20 ] Havohej > o/
?[ 2008.05.07 03:24:40 ] Havohej > why ratting in lowsec - why not 0.0 with phoon?
?[ 2008.05.07 03:24:56 ] Captain Salina > lol just having a little fun
?[ 2008.05.07 03:24:59 ] Lt Burrk > hey. thanks for not shooting us.

¶ “Not shooting us?  I’m not done, yet…” I thought.
¶ I knew that Myas had to make his way to where his Hound was stationed and then travel the 10 or so jumps to Khabi.  I also knew that these two wouldn’t stick around for too long, so I didn’t have much time.  I’d seen no guns (but strangely what looked like a mining laser!?!?) on the Typhoon when I warped into the belt, so I assumed he must have launchers and perhaps some manner of remote repair systems fitted.  The Omen had the expected armaments, minus drones.  Knowing that my ship’s low signature radius would keep me from taking too much damage from cruise missiles or torpedoes from the Typhoon, I decided to go back and engage.  I would try to destroy the Omen while fighting off the battleship’s drones, then - if I weren’t taking too much damage from the battleship’s missiles or torpedoes - I would see how well his armor handled Hail S.  Neither pilot seemed to be exceptionally experienced, and it struck me that the ‘phoon might just be terribly fit and ransom-able.
¶ I warped back to the belt right on top of the Omen, with only 8 kilometers between me and Captain Salina’s Typhoon.  I resolved lock on Lt Burrk’s cruiser and two of the three drones (apparently the pilot couldn’t control five at once) and went to work, Republic Fleet EMP S stripping the Omen’s shields quickly while my 2-point Warp Scrambler II held him in place, overpowering the ‘Halcyon’ Core Equalizer I that I didn’t know he had fitted.  His pulse lasers opened fire, missing once, twice and then a third time… and then, Lt Burrk’s name disappeared from the Local Channel.
¶ He had cut himself off from his ship’s control systems, attempting to initiate an emergency warp.  He didn’t know how the “logoffski” worked.  His friend did nothing - not a single cruise missile or torpedo fired in defense of the cruiser, not a single drone attacked.
¶ Seeing that his friend’s Omen didn’t warp away as expected, Captain Salina tried using threats to get me to leave.

 ?[ 2008.05.07 03:27:58 ] Captain Salina > having fun
?[ 2008.05.07 03:28:02 ] Havohej > a little
?[ 2008.05.07 03:28:22 ] Captain Salina > you realize if you kill him my corp will be here in a sec
?[ 2008.05.07 03:28:27 ] Havohej > /emote shrugs
?[ 2008.05.07 03:28:49 ] Havohej > 10M for a vexor?
?[ 2008.05.07 03:36:48 ] Havohej > lol losers
?[ 2008.05.07 03:36:56 ] Havohej > logoff doesn’t save you when you’ve already been shot

¶ As the Omen began venting burning oxygen from its hull, I resolved lock on the Typhoon itself.  Not even a full second after the Omen exploded under the power of Hail S, I had turned the Warp Scrambler II on the battleship and began to reload the Republic Fleet EMP S into my 150mm AutoCannon II’s.  Now Captain Salina opened fire.  And then, even after having seen his friend’s Omen not be able to escape me with the “logoffski”, even after having seen that his friend’s single WCS hadn’t been enough to save him from my Wolf’s AutoCannons, Captain Salina committed a “logoffski” himself.  His name vanished from the Local channel.
¶ I was worried that fifteen minutes might not be long enough for me to eat through shield, armor and hull of a battleship with just four 150mm AutoCannons, albeit very powerful ones.  It turned out that my worrying was for nothing.  My Wolf’s shield flickered as it was pounded by heavy chunks of debris from the Typhoon’s explosion.
¶ I was disappointed but not surprised to see how terribly both ships were fit - in fairness, I shouldn’t have expected anything more.  I wasn’t able to take much from the Omen’s wreck, and there was really nothing worth taking from the Typhoon’s wreck.  Over 100M ISK in damage inflicted, and nothing to show for it but a J5b Phased Prototype Warp Inhibitor I and two very entertaining killmails from CONCORD.

[ 2008.05.07 03:31:54 ] (combat) Your 150mm Light AutoCannon II perfectly strikes Captain Salina (Typhoon), wrecking for 154.6 damage.

-Havo out.    

2 Responses to “A Tale of Two Logoffskis - by Havohej”

Leave a Reply