Chapter 1

The meeting room was filled with chiefs, managing directors and many important people in the company, that came from the various departments of the company. The room was loud with chatter, talking about the company condition and the new chairwoman. It has been a month since her announcement and many thing had changed with. Changes such as raising the salaries of the low rank workers and lowering the high ranking ones, wanting more quality production in a shorter amount of time and many policies changes that was too much to explain.

The door opens and the people got up from their luxurious chairs, the presence of the chairwoman make them silent instinctively. Alesia enter the meeting room with her posture straight and her face ever serious. She wore a formal dress that was a mixture of yellow and white color, it was not revealing as most of her body was concealed with the exception from her knee to her ankle. Her hair was released and was long untill her waist. The sound of her high heels fills the silence of the meeting room, she arrives to her chair that was at the end of the long table.

She sat at her chair and look around, from her point view, she could clearly see the people that was at the meeting room, be it beside her or at the other end of the table. With a nod, all of the attendees sit at their respective chair.

"Now" Alesia lean at her chair. "Let's get straight to the point, I want to fire you all"

All the attendees were shocked by the statement, one swift word and their lives were ruin. Alesia smirked seeing the reaction of the attendees. All the attendees look at her, implying for an explanation on such decision. But she kept quiet, enjoying the misery of the people that she made jobless.

"I don't understand?" one of them stand up. "All the things that we did for the company and this is your reward to us?"

"Yes" She nodded innocently."You received what you accomplish. I see you are quite angered with it."

"Yes I am" He started to raise his voice, but she remain composed. "I work for Jack for a long time and I demand a proper reward."

"Well claimed the reward that you so wanted at his grave." Alesia looked at the man, then she turned towards everyone. "From now on, my objectives are the company objectives. And by looking at the passing month performance, you all are complete failures."

The man that stands up shamefully sit down.

"The days of Handsome Jack are long gone, from now starts my administration. And the first official demand I make from all of you is to get out from my company." Alesia got up and walk towards the exit, the sound of her high heels hitting the floor fill the silence of the sad attendees. "You will still get this month salary, that will suffice for you to retire. Now get out from my space station."

Outside the room, Blake was waiting with a tablet at his hand. Mister Blake was the personal assistant of the late chairman of Hyperion, Handsome Jack. After his death, he work as a normal worker, sometimes being an assistant to the higher executives of the corporate company. Alesia see him as a useful assistant and for her to take him would be a great boon for her.

"Ma'am" Blake greeted with a bow.

"Come with me" She gestured toward the elevator. "We have few things to discuss"

Blake followed her towards the elevator. As Alesia walk through the corridor, the people that she pass bows with respect and to some, with fear.

"Now I just fired all the higher ups of the company, I want you to make sure they're dead. They won't just go and leave the company, they're rich and smart meaning they will work together to sue the company. Kill them all, I don't have time to go to court."

"Yes " said Blake with English accent. "How do you want them to be killed?"

"Make it long and painful, remind them that it was I that ordered them to suffer."

"Yes Ma'am"

Both of them arrived at the elevator and the presence of the chairwoman automatically opens the elevator door, she enters with Blake following behind her. Blake was busy writing notes on his tablet, making sure that every order from the chairwoman was noted and precise. Alesia press a button and the elevator started to move. She glance at Blake and continues.

"Those who work for a long time will finally get their promotion, make sure each department high ranking officers are experienced and qualify for their promotion. Not only that, I want you to pick the people that work for the company for more than 20 years. I want people that can perform and also I can trust, so that any meetings that I make flow smoothly and any work would be done efficiently. Make monthly reports on their performance and send it to my desk."

The elevator opens and they arrived at an office that was spacious and had a big desk with a holographic screen on top of it. The room was spacious and had a few decorative flowers on the sides of the room. But oddly enough, the room was empty, nothing seems to occupy the room with the exception of the decorative aesthetics. Blake was quite astonish with room but also puzzled with the room, why would the chairwoman choose an office like this even though she could get more?

Alesia walk pass the guest chairs and go behind the leather chair, she smiles as she look at the aged man that was observing the room with puzzled look. "As for you Blake, you have long gain my trust and I know you trust me fully." Blake look at her and was more than surprise what the chairwoman was saying.

"This room was hosted by the CEO of Hyperion, but I fired him moments ago. Now this place is empty and someone has to filled it." Alesia nears toward Blake. " I can't let a personal assistant to manage my company, as it would disrupt the company image. Today I officially promote you as the CEO of Hyperion."

She gestured at the chair, implying Blake to sit at the luxurious chair. Blake was speechless and put his tablet on top of the table, he slowly walk toward the leather chair and sit on it. He sunk on the chair and finally the years of sitting at cheap chairs was over, he was cherishing the moment and look at his boss with a smile. Alesia look at her CEO and answer it with a smile.

"Im speechless..." Blake touch his new wide desk that had the state of the art technology.

"You have more than earn it. Handsome Jack was only there to take the credit but it was your sweat and effort that made the company stable throughout the years." She intentionally cough, trying to change the situation into a more professional conversation. "Now, that does not mean that you will not manage my timetables anymore, to me you still my personal assistant but to the other workers you are their boss. Now do your work."

"Yes Ma'am" Said Blake that was ever grateful in his life, opening the Holographic console and doing what was told to do.

She walks away from the room and said without glancing back. "Don't thank me yet, if you do not perform I won't hesitate to fire you"

...

She enter her office and it was more spacious than the office before, her desk was made of clear glass and behind was a panoramic view of Pandora. It was a beautiful scene, the planet had a mix color with ice white and lava red being the dominant landscape because of the extreme weathers and terrain of the planet. Her office also had a decorative flowers that filled the corners of the room. Portraits of her with striking poses and over exaggerated backgrounds was also hung on the walls of the office. On the side of the room, there was a cabinet with empty glasses and a few drinks.

Then she realize someone was sitting at one of the guest chairs in front of her desk. The mysterious man got up and greeted her."Hello Ma'am"

He was wearing a military attire that was an old blue marine color, his face was almost concealed by his cap that also had a similar color. His chest has no medals signing that he was not send by any company or government, or he could be just a plain soldier but had the guts and not the brains to meet the chairwoman of the company unplanned. She could see his name on one of his pocket at his chest that wrote "AE1".

Alesia was not fond of surprises when it involves business, to her it was unnecessary and a planned one would be more efficient. Especially when a man wearing a military uniform was waiting at her office. The man in front of her was giving a threatening sense to her, she could feel that the man was respected among his colleagues and she should be careful with him.

"Who are you?" She asked while looking at his face, trying to meet his eyes that was hidden by the cap.

"Keith" The man hand out his hand, expecting a handshake. "AE team"

Alesia ignores him and walk towards her chair. "I do not recount any meetings that involves the name of 'AE team'" She sat at her chair and touch her table, then a hologram appear on top of it and she open a few reports. "I'm quite busy and if you don't leave I will consider you as an intruder"

"I'm sorry " Keith smirk. " I'm from the Annihilate and Exterminate team, AE for short Ma'am"

Alesia closes her holograph console and look at him with her brows raised. "Ahh now I remember, please have a seat" She gestured towards the guest seats in front of her, Keith obliged to sit. "Forgive me for being rude, I'm quite filled with managing a corporate company and there are so many people with similar names like you"

"Understandable"

"As you know, I want something that you can provide and you want something I can provide. Let's make this simple and tell me why I should pick your company than any other hired guns company across the galaxy quadrant."

Keith raised his head and look at her in the eye. No longer behind the cap, Alesia could see handsome man. His eyes was brown and so did his hair that was darker in color. Before the man even say a word, she was impressed with him by staring her in the eye, quite bold in her opinion.

"My soldier are the best and will deal any problem regardless how hard the mission, but with a reasonable pay" With confidence did Keith said. "Gave us a mission and consider it accomplished."

A moment of silence and a puzzled face, Alesia said. "Is that all?"

"I can give you a speech if you want but I think you are busy, you are the chairman of the company and a moment ago you said you were busy."

"You made an appointment and you got it, I could spare my time as long as I'm interested, tell me about your 'AE Team'"

"The AE team participate wars, including the rebellion on the planet Myriad and also the liberation Isolus"

"That's all? I thought a company like yours should have, at least, a dozen more impressive reasons for me to hear."

"No that's not all, if I tell you about each and every mission we participate it would be too long, I reckon I would waste your time."

Alesia think for a moment, the man was impressive that fit with his image. Just one question and he would give one answer, short yet conclusive. She have to admit that she was impress with him, many people came to her office tend to exaggerate their companies accomplishments just to get a contract with the big company. But this man was different.

"Who are you?" She ask suspiciously. "Are you a representative or just a middle man?"

"I'm the boss of my company, the AE team" Alesia was quite surprise with his identity, the boss of the company can gave the impression of the company itself. "There's no need an extra party if we need to deal with each other."

Alesia tapped her glass desk and look elsewhere, she tried not to giggle but it resulted her to smirk. She look back at the soldier hidden beneath the cap, impressed by his way of negotiations. Straight to business type of man.

"How much would one soldier cost?"

"Are you interested?"

"I'm considering"

"Ten million per soldier, excluding extra cost"

Surprised with the price, she instantly answered "Then I'm not interested"

"Why would I consider to buy a soldier that cost ten million when I could manufacture thousands of Loader Bots with the same amount of budget?" She said.

"My team will eliminate the cause of the problem rather than dealing the problem instead." He said confidently. "Ma'am I think we both know that your bots usually end up being destroyed. The next time you build another army of robots you would end up with scraps of metal. And I quote "anything that will result pain to them, I will make it happen""

Alesia went quiet, she was at a loss and the man in front her was right, she will do whatever it takes to make the Resistance no more than just a worthless wannabe army. With the company state, she had to do more work and put the battle with the Resistance a minor priority. Previously she order Blake to send more Loader Bots and occupy more territory, just moments ago she promoted him to become CEO of the company and she was not confident that Blake would make a great job with two sophisticate objectives.

Alesia have mix feeling with it, she has a department that consist of soldiers and engineers but unfortunately the department was underperforming. She was gaining but also losing territory at an equal amount, a stalemate war. But maybe this so called 'AE team' could break the stalemate.

"Hmm, I think you manage to convince me Mr. Keith. I'm interested." She nodded

"How much would it be then?"

"Two for now, I would like to know the impact of hiring gunmen that cost ten million. Hopefully they would not be just the same as my Loader Bots"

"Then consider it done" Keith got up from the guest chair and walk towards the exit,

"But with conditions" Alesia leaned at her chair and put her right on top her left leg, Keith glance back with a raised brow. "Since the pay would be 20 million excluding extra payment, I think I need to have a few benefits on my behalf"

"Then state it" Keith turned back and looked at her seriously.

"I will pay 2 million right now, if your soldier manage to make an impact I would pay the remainder 18 million with addition of the extra cost. But if you kill one of the Vault Hunters. Consider you violate the contract and your other 18 million would just be a possibility. "

"You don't want kill them?" Keith became more puzzled.

"I said making an impact, that doesn't mean that you have to kill them"

"So how will the 'impact' be then?"

"That is up to you to decide" She turn he chair towards the panoramic view of the barbaric planet, making the back of the chair facing Keith. "I'm expecting that your soldier would face the same fate just like my Loader Bots did, failing."

Keith smirk, rather than thinking it was a disadvantage, to him it was a challenge. "Is there anything else you want to say?"

"From now on, call me Madam Chairman. Oh, I'm quite impressed with your ways of negotiation Mr.Keith."

"I'm just trying my best to convinced my client to take my service, thank you for the compliment. I respect that Ma'am."

"I think that's all. Now go and prove me wrong" Alesia waved off her hand.

"Yes Ma'am, have a good day" Keith continues towards the exits and do his job.