Editing Aris Sung

{{Update Needed|[[The Killing Fields]]|[[Threads of Ambition]]|[[Shattered Sphere]]}}
{{InfoBoxCharacter
| image               = Aris Sung BTLegends.jpg
| caption             = 
| name                = Aris Sung
| birthdate           = [[3034]]<ref name=BTL>''BattleTech: Legends'', p. 110-111</ref>
| died                = 5 August [[3072]]<ref name=BTL/><ref name=WCM/>
| othernames          = 
| affiliation         = [[Capellan Confederation]]
| rank                = 
| title               = 
| position            = 
| profession          = [[MechWarrior (pilot)|MechWarrior]]
| parents             = 
| siblings            = 
| spouse              = 
| children            = 
}}
'''Aris Sung''' was a [[MechWarrior (pilot)|MechWarrior]] of [[Warrior House Hiritsu]].

He entered into the service of the House at an unusual age of 13 years (he was too old to join the house by regular means) by stealing [[Crescent Moon]] and asking for a place in the house before he returned it. He rose through ranks and commanded a company during the siege of [[Kaifeng]]. He also participated in the Capellan - St. Ives war.

==History==
===Early Life===
Aris Sung grew up on [[Randar]] as an orphan, and it is implied he was a thief and street gangster by [[3047]] when he was 13 years old. He admired House Hiritsu who resided on the world and wanted to join their ranks.<ref name=BF>''Binding Force''</ref>

At thirteen years of age Aris Sung won admission to Warrior House Hiritsu by impressing [[House Master]] [[Virginia York]] with his audacity and maturity when he broke into the House's stronghold and stole [[Crescent Moon]]. It was at that young age that he merited the ire of future House Master [[Ty Wu Non]], establishing an irascible relationship that lasted throughout Sung's career with the Warrior House. Sung entered training later than most other applicants, but applied himself and had, by 3051, become a member of House Hirtisu's infantry battalion. It was in this role that he was present on [[Gei-Fu]] to subdue a [[BattleMech]] (a ''[[Stinger]]'') single-handedly, saving the life of House Master York in the process. This earned him a promotion to the House's BattleMech battalion in the 'Mech he captured.<ref name=BF/>

===Kaifeng===
By [[3058]] Sung's obvious abilities and brilliant mind had earned him the position of Lance Leader in the BattleMech battalion, and he was instrumental in the attack on [[Kaifeng]]. When traitors from within House Hiritsu conspired with the [[Kaifeng Sarna March Militia]] to bring down the Warrior House and succeeded in killing House Master Virginia York, Sung advanced to Company Leader, uncovered the conspiracy, and helped the House battle its way to victory.<ref name=BF/>

On Kaifeng, Aris befriended a young thief named [[Li Wynn]], who provided vital assistance to him as he was stranded behind enemy lines. Admiring Aris, Li Wynn joined Warrior House Hiritsu afterwards,<ref>''Threads of Ambition'', p. 15</ref> though he and Aris would later come to disagree with each other on certain issues.

===Capellan-St. Ives War===
When the [[Chancellor]] chose to tour the Capellan worlds along the [[St. Ives Compact]] border, it was House Hiritsu, and Aris Sung with them, who oversaw much of his security. In his personal journal Sung wrote of how the ''[[Xin Sheng]]'' movement had revitalized the Confederation's populace and military, and his own pride in serving as head of the Chancellor's honor guard, as well swearing to protect his ruler against any St. Ives treachery, for if [[Sun-Tzu Liao]] died the Confederation's revival would die with him.<ref>''Shattered Sphere'', p. 64</ref>

Sung's suspicions about his Compact brethren appeared vindicated when the [[Blackwind Lancers]] struck at the Chancellor's entourage on [[Hustaing]], though Sun-Tzu himself had instead returned to [[Sian]] briefly, and was represented on Hustaing by his fiancée, [[Isis Marik]], who went missing in the attack.<ref name=AoW>''The Art of War</ref>

Sung and the Hiritsu warriors drove the Lancers off, never realizing that Sun-Tzu had in fact instigated the attack using a Maskirovka agent in the Lancers (and had apparently planned to sacrifice Iris Marik for greater impact). Aris Sung even sought and received special permission from House Master Ty Wu Non to infiltrate the city during the upheaval to find and rescue Isis Marik. In this he succeeded, though in the final showdown between Hiritsu personnel, Blackwind Lancers, and several criminal street gangs, Aris Sung would have been killed if not for the intervention of a [[Setiwah|mysterious operative]] with an unknown agenda.<ref name=AoW/>

In the subsequent [[Capellan-St. Ives War|war]] with St. Ives, Sung and the Hiritsu warriors remained near the forefront of the Capellan advance.

Together with other Capellan forces, House Hiritsu was present on [[St. Ives]] when the [[CCAF]] took that world. Sung was often the voice of compassion and reason within the Warrior House during this period, a role that House Master Ty Wu Non encouraged him in, despite their past differences.<ref>''Era Report: 3062'', p. 88</ref>

===Word of Blake Jihad and Death===
Aris Sung was sent to [[Fanardir]], in the [[Magistracy of Canopus]], along with a team from House Hiritsu, to make contact with a supposed anti-Blakist resistance cell after the [[Word of Blake]] has brought the world under their control. The insertion failed; Aris Sung and his fellow [[MechWarrior (pilot)|MechWarrior]] [[Mikhail Chess]] were discovered and hunted down in their BattleMechs. Both were destroyed, but survived.<ref name=WCM>''With Carrion Men''</ref>

Aris managed to escape initially, but was tracked and attacked by [[Setiwah]], a female [[Manei Domini]] operative. She ended up cutting his hand off and driving a blade into his heart.<ref name=WCM/>

Aris woke up weeks later at a Resistance cell base and learned they had rescued him from a Blakist laboratory. For some reason they had kept him alive and fitted him with an artificial hand and heart. However, it was an elaborate ruse. The "resistance cell" turned out to be a Word of Blake counterinsurgency operation designed to gain Aris Sung's trust. Through his attempts to contact other Hiritsu operatives on Fanardir he unwittingly compromised the entire Hiritsu operation as well as the real resistance cell.

Just as he realized that he had been played (upon meeting with the real resistance), Word of Blake forces attacked and decimated them. Aris Sung found his artificial hand spasmed uncontrollably, sidelining him in the fight. In the end he was approached by Setiwah who confirmed that it had been her who had helped him twelve years earlier on Hustaing, because he sought to rescue Isis Marik—the Word of Blake [[Master]]'s progeny. Finally, she killed him by stopping his artificial heart with a button on a remote control.<ref name=WCM/><ref>''Field Report: CCAF'', p. 9</ref>

==BattleMechs==
Aris Sung was awarded the ''[[Stinger]]'' he had defeated when he was promoted from House Hiritsu's infantry to MechWarrior.<ref name=BTL/><ref name=BF/> By 3058, he piloted a ''[[Wraith]]'' (an unusual design originating from the [[Free Worlds League]]) which he painted gunmetal blue and served most of his active career with. The ''Wraith'' was destroyed in the failed insertion on Fanardir.

==Family==
After the Blakist defeat on Setiwah, Magistracy forces recovered a child with genetic markers matching Aris. The child was taken by House Hiritsu. Aris' granddaughter, Sandra, was born in [[3107]]. During the late [[Dark Age Era]], she fought alongside [[Danai Centrella-Liao]], seeking to emulate Aris' martial and philosophical perfection.<ref>''BattleTech: Legends'', p. 110</ref>

==Quotations==
{{quote|''Without the [[Warrior House]]s, the [[Capellan Confederation|Capellan State]] would collapse as the eagle falls without her wings.''}}

==Notes==
*Aris Sung was at the center of an ensemble cast of House Hiritsu characters introduced in [[Loren Coleman]]'s novel ''[[Binding Force]]''. They would feature in several more novels and stories by him and later [[Phaedra Weldon]], and were mostly killed off in Weldon's story ''[[With Carrion Men]]''.
*Among the scenes depicted on its cover, ''[[Handbook: House Liao]]'' features the captive 13-year-old Aris Sung as he is brought before House Master Virginia York by Ty Wu Non.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Aris Sung ER3062.jpg|Aris Sung at age 26, from ''[[Era Report: 3062|ER:3062]]''
Aris Sung BTLegends.jpg|Sung from ''[[BattleTech: Legends|BT:Legends]]''
Stinger (Fu Shen) BTLegends.jpg|Sung's ''Stinger'' ''Fu Shen'' from ''BT:Legends''
</gallery>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[BattleTech: Legends]]'' (sourcebook)
* ''[[Binding Force]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Era Report: 3062]]''
* ''[[Field Report: CCAF]]''
* ''[[Shattered Sphere]]'' (sourcebook)
* ''[[Threads of Ambition]]'' (novel)
* ''[[The Art of War]]''
* ''[[The Killing Fields]]'' (novel)
* ''[[With Carrion Men]]'' (short story)


[[Category:Capellan Confederation Characters|Sung, Aris]]
[[Category:Notable Stinger Pilots|Sung, Aris]]