The first album not to feature Terry Brown as producer, Grace Under Pressure ventures further into synthpop territory than Signals did. It’s almost as if the band are feeling their way with their new technologies and are thoroughly enjoying themselves with them. Neil uses an electric kit as part of his setup for the first time here too. There are some terrific iconic songs on here and the band weave different styles such as reggae and ska into some of the compositions. I remember being a little underwhelmed when i first listened to it. For me it was the last of the third era albums I tried and, having been spoiled by the other three I felt it didn’t quite live up to them. It didn’t take long to grow on me however and I began to find myself returning to it often.

More on the wonderful Grace Under Pressure below…

Distant Early Warning
Afterimage
Red Sector A
The Enemy Within
The Body Electric
Kid Gloves
Red Lenses
Between The Wheels

Imperial Eagle

The Imperial Eagle. Basically an Eagle with a hat on, And some fancy clothes, new boots, expensive aftershave – underneath it’s basically the same Eagle. But that Klingon Bird of Prey look is gone! And it looks so gorgeous! I engineered it for speed and took it to Pomeche 2c for some canyon running fun. And it really is fun! And that chrome paintwork I bought for the Kid Gloves looks the biz!

The *Kid GlovesI races along a canyon on Pomeche 2c*

Finding a use for it though, other than racing can be a challenge. Unless you’re a hardened, dedicated combat pilot who likes a tough challenge, which I am definitely not. Although, I think, Cmdr Leeya Geddy seems to have found a use for the Kid Gloves a little further below…

Imperial Courier

I mean…what is there left to say about this ship? It’s stunning. And fast. Stupidly fast. I put a ship kit on her, painted her a beautiful chrome like the Imperial Eagle and named her the Afterimage. I then took her, of course, to Pomeche just like the iEagle. Fun was had. LOTS of fun. Honestly, it’s ridiculous just how much fun this ship is to fly. It doesn’t really excel at any of the activities in game or anything. It’s just so much fun!

The *Afterimage* heads down to Pomeche 2c

Racing along the surface of Pomeche 2c the *Afterimage* reaches dizzying speeds!

The Eighties Are Truly Here!

“I remember
How we talked and drank into the misty dawn
I hear the voices

We ran by the water on the wet summer lawn
I see the footprints
I remember”

Afterimage – Grace Under Pressure

These days Grace Under Pressure is one of my go to Rush LP’s. It is a near perfect listen, each song paving the way perfectly for the next. When you hear the opening few chords for each track it fools you into thinking what kind of a song you will experience until it opens out further in and you suddenly realise you have a great big grin on your face. The lyrical content is very of it’s time as well. The paranoia of the 80’s is very evident right the way through especially in tracks such as Distant Early Warning and The Enemy Within. It seems that Rush grasped the Eighties and its sound with both hands, yet still managed to wrestle it to the ground and make it their own. Geddy is really beginning to master those synths, Alex is getting to grips with the new sounds coming from his guitar and Neil is thriving with a new electronic set as part of his regular kit. I think my initial dislike of this wonderful album comes from the fact that it sounds very different to Signals and even more different to everything before that, but it also sounds very different to everything that came after. It was their first with producer Peter Henderson having decided to no longer work with previous producer Terry Brown. They were really trying out and mastering new ideas, instruments and writing. If you’re new to Rush and want to sample their 80’s period, I would strongly suggest starting with this one first!

Visiting The Crystal Shards In Odyssey

The *Kid Gloves* ready for take off at HIP 36601 C 1

“A world of difference
A world so out of touch
Overwhelmed by everything
But wanting more so much”

Kid Gloves – Grace Under Pressure

O7! It’s Commander Leeya Geddy reporting once again! Now, in order to properly engineer the entire fleet I’m going to need a lot more raw materials. This means coming to the HIP 36601 and Outotz LS-K D8-3 systems to visit the Crystal Shards – biological lifeforms that bear the most valuable materials with which we can fill our boots! The situation has drastically changed in the Galaxy and we are no longer able to use the old systems to further our progress, so we now have to visit using the new “Live” system. Many commanders much prefer the older “Legacy” system and struggle to find the shards with the new, but this report is here to put everyone’s mind at rest. I found it just as easy to find and completely fill my coffers with all the grade 5 materials I needed. And I found it a far more immersive and rewarding experience to boot! I thought I’d bring The Garden all the way up to these systems as getting one’s SRV completely stuck used to be the norm out here and it used to have to be set on self destruct and replaced. But, as it turns out, well, let’s see…

I decided to use a ship that would otherwise be completely overlooked for exploration. A ship that would usually only be used for combat and speed, but I also wanted a ship that looked spectacular and was fun to fly. So I decided to go with my Imperial Eagle, the Kid Gloves.

If you want to take a good landscape shot – make sure the ship is a stunning one!

It took three jumps to get the carrier to the system, a process that took a little over an hour. Just to contrast if I had taken one of my exploration ships it would have taken roughly half that time! But it’s nice to not have to make the 130,000ls trek to get all the way out to the tertiary system and it’s also nice to have your own base to be able to return to if things go awry, especially when using such a small vessel with limited module options. Even so, I could still fit in an SRV bay, shield AND fuel scoop – adequate to come here in an Imperial Eagle all by itself in case anyone is feeling a little more adventurous. Once I was set, it was just a case of selecting the first moon and flying towards it. Oh! And just a quick note – DON’T forget to equip a surface scanner. Or this whole exercise is a waste of time.

Now I didn’t have to actually fire any probes at any of the moons because I’ve been here so many times, but you do still need the surface scanner to see the blue distribution map. Then it’s just a case of looking for a nice, smooth, duck egg blue patch and aiming to reach the surface right in the middle of it.

Bio-scanning a crystal shard, with gas giant HIP 36601 c 1 on the horizon

Here’s where the Kid Gloves really came into her own! When looking for organics I like to “helicopter”. This involves pointing the nose down, pushing the throttle to a comfortable speed (this will vary depending on the ship but I like to keep it in the blue section to keep manoeuvrability at a maximum), and using the vertical thrusters to stop myself from flying straight into the ground. It’s a tricky technique to master but once I was used to it I found that it was the most immersive way to spot organics. Even small ones like Tussock. Way more immersive than using the external camera which kinda spoils it for me. Thankfully, the crystal shards are pretty big and easy to spot. And, not only that, there are so many of them. Sometimes there are only a few dotted around but sometimes there are small forests of them, easily enough to at least half fill your G5 raw material limit. Also, we can now get out, physically walk up to them and scan them with the bio-scanner. Which really makes you appreciate just how large these things are!

Heading for a polonium growth I’ve just shot off from the Crystal.

But even though I’ve come here this time to see how viable it is to use the Kid Gloves, one of the other main reasons I come here, apart from collecting the precious mats, is because of how peaceful, beautiful and relaxing it is here. If you need a short break from the Bubble you can forget the busy tourist destinations, this is the place to be.

Sometimes there was nothing else for it but to send her away, and just look for these things from the ground in the Scarab. It isnt long before you’ll see some new outcrops in the distance, or maybe spot a small spinney of shards as you trundle over the summit of a hill, or spying a whole thicket of them as you carefully inch your way down the side of a huge crater. Before I knew it, I had collected enough polonium and it was time to move on to the next moon. But I couldn’t resist a little race as close as I dare to the surface in the Kid Gloves for a few minutes before hauling back on the yoke and blasting away into space. Then it’s merely a case of rinse, wash, repeat. The planets we visit are all quite varied – they’re not all silver and are never boring to just wander about on, marvelling at the sights of the parent gas giant or the beautiful reds of Barnard’s Loop in the sky. It’s just so lonely here, but in a really good way! It wasn’t long before I found a large clutch of shards and I thought it would be a good idea to see how easy it was to get the SRV stuck. A problem all too irritating back in Legacy.

Try as I might I couldn’t get stuck no matter how hard I rammed the shards or how high I tried to drive the Scarab up them. It was nice to know that I could now attempt to squeeze the Scarab between some of the more closely packed shards without fear of having to self destruct and going all the way back to the Bubble to get a new one! With this new boldness, it wasn’t very long before the mats on the first four moons had been harvested and it was time to return to The Garden and relocate it to Outotz LS-K D8-3 B.

Harvesting in the new “Live” system is not without its problems, however. Sometimes material growths would protrude from the main shard below the surface and would be impossible to shoot off, leaving irritatingly enticing blips on the scanner. Also, I found I couldn’t shoot off more than two or three splinters at a time as some of them would mysteriously vanish, and time would be wasted looking for them only to realise they were no longer there.

Great views of Barnard’s Loop from Outotz LS-K D8-3 B5c

Outotz LS-K D8-3 B is a lot closer to Barnards Loop and there are some great views of it to be had as we search for more shards. Again, it wasn’t long before I had filled my allocated G5 raw storage with the remaining two materials and it was time to return to The Garden one final time before plotting a route for the carrier back to the Bubble.

Really, I wish I had done this before rather than go back to the old system to collect my raw materials. It was a very relaxing, peaceful and stress free weekend. Made all the more pleasurable by flying from site to site in the wonderful Kid Gloves. I know, when I next need to fill up on raws again, it will be the beautiful Imperial Eagle taking off from the carrier.

And who knows – next time I may just fly in her all the way from the Bubble!