A Pilot-Legend Passes

by Yaz Shanndar

(Solrain Core) Long-time veteran pilot Samwise has finished his long tour of duty on 116.11.28, passing away at the age of 85.  Samwise was an Optimus pilot and a long-time member of the squad New Dawn.  He spent most of his career battling The Conflux, amassing almost 40,000 flux-kills just since The Catastrophe.  He was last seen in space on 116.10.20, plying his trade.

Samwise, who some knew as Wisesam, was a pilot who was liked and respected by all.  He continued to fly well after most pilots are long-retired and never seemed to slow down.  In the dark times when few pilots were launching, Samwise continued his crusade.

Current and retired pilots continue to pass along their condolences and celebrate his great career HERE.

Samwise has been posthumously awarded the Solrain Foundation of Trust, the TRI Order of Merit and the Defender of the Barrier.

    

His friends and family have asked that we share a favorite poem of his.  He found it on a DSS many years ago and quoted it often to whomever would hear him.

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

— Rudyard Kipling

Samwise will be sorely missed by all.