Aesir Headquarters

Aesir Headquarters

The Aesir Headquarters building was located at Aesir Plaza in New York City in 2001, and it is where the Aesir Corporation conducted most of its business during the Valkyr Case.

Characteristics

The headquarters of the Aesir Corporation was a skyscraper over 50 stories tall and located at Aesir Plaza. The plaza also had another, smaller building that was adjacent to the main skyscraper, connected by a single-story covered structure. The main headquarters building itself was reminiscent of a modernist, International architectural style, with the building made up of glass exteriors, as well as steel and concrete supports. The interior furniture was minimalistic, with lights strung up by thick cables or built into the ceiling and several benches that could be found in the lobby and halls of the headquarters.

The front entrance to the Aesir building faced the street, with a sloped glass roof covering the entrance, and the middle of the building recessed horizontally all the way up the front and back sides of the skyscraper. Upon entering the building, there was a security station set up, with a large gate that blocked off further access into Aesir's headquarters without going through a pair of metal detectors. The doors within the headquarters were unmarked and numerous, creating a mazelike layout of offices, halls, and rooms. As an additional layer of security, most of the doors were locked via a keycard or remote computer system, with a bar of light above the doors that indicated whether they were locked or unlocked.

Aside from the door locking system and gated entrance, the building had additional security features, which included a security team with heavy weaponry, hallways and elevator shafts guarded by high-tech laser beams that are lethal upon contact, and a security computer mainframe that controlled elevator access to the upper floors of the headquarters.

The mainframe that controlled the building's elevator access to the upper floors was located in the basement level of the headquarters. above the ground and lobby floors were the office floors, where Aesir projects and business deals were worked on by numerous employees, the floors accessed by several elevators. The highest office, the Presidential Office, was a two-story open space, the first floor acted as a mini-lobby where the elevators and locked doors to smaller rooms were located. The middle section and Horne's computer desk on the second floor overlooked the mini-lobby, and the front of the office area was a small meeting area with a view of Aesir plaza and the New York skyline.

On the highest floors was Nicole Horne's private penthouse, which had even more security features preventing intruders from exploring the penthouse or reaching the roof, such as steel gates that separated entire rooms and bulletproof shutters that could cover the penthouse's windows. Upon reaching the penthouse floor from the elevator, a visitor would be in a room similar to a lobby or waiting room, with chairs, tables, and a cubed art structure in the room and several portraits hung on concrete and metal walls. There was a library with a door leading outside to a balcony in one corner of the building, and in the other corner of the building was a small room with several small sculptures on pedestals.

There was a staircase that leads to a higher floor of the penthouse, with small, personal elevators found throughout the penthouse that would transport personnel to different areas of the upper floors. The highest floor of the penthouse contained a conference room lined with pillars along the sides of it, and a desk with several computer and television monitors, in addition to a digitally green, transparent map of the world. A secret door off to the side of the desk had an inclining stairwell that led up to the roof of the headquarters.

The roof itself had an antenna mast on a raised portion of the building, and it was held in place by four guy-wires attached to protruded wire anchors at each corner of the roof. Around the mast's platform was a wide walkway for cargo and people to be transported to and from the headquarters and the helipad that extended off the side of the ride, held up by several large girders; the roof's walkways were also bordered by walls and railings, preventing the people and objects on the roof to fall.

Events

In 2001 at the end of the Valkyr Case, Max Payne attacked the building in order to kill Nicole Horne. Payne fought against the building's numerous well-equipped security guards and Horne's personal bodyguards, as well as getting past the headquarters' sophisticated security systems and traps. Upon reaching the lower office floor's elevators, Max once again faced Mona Sax. Sax told him that she was hired by Nicole Horne to execute Angelo Punchinello, which she agreed to because of his abusive relationship towards Sax's sister, Lisa Punchinello. Mona then told Max that she likes him, and won't be following Horne's orders to kill him, but she was shot by a Killer Suit for disobeying Horne. She disappeared behind closing elevator doors, but when the elevator came back, Mona was gone.

Max made his way past more gunmen and security systems while also avoiding shots from an attacking helicopter outside of the headquarters building, targeting Max several times while he would work his way up to Horne's personal office and penthouse. Payne eventually got into Horne's penthouse, which forced her to escape to the roof and onto the helicopter that had been shooting at Max. The helicopter was unable to immediately take off due to the high winds, and as the helicopter awaited clearance to take off, Max destroyed the anchors that kept the guy-wires of the headquarters' antenna mast in place. The mast subsequently fell on top of the helicopter as it began to take off, killing Nicole Horne and the pilot.

Moments later, Max was surrounded by the NYPD SWAT team and he surrendered to them, feeling relieved that he had finally avenged his wife and daughter. As Max is led outside by the police, the Deputy Chief of the NYPD commented on the difficulty in catching him before he ordered his men to take Max to central booking; Max then saw Alfred Woden in the crowd, and he thought about how the Inner Circle member better keep his end of the bargain he had previously made with Max. The Valkyr Case was then closed with the arrest of Max Payne and the death of Nichole Horne and her cohorts.

Weapons Located

Note: Max is equipped with every weapon at the beginning of the chapter Nothing to Lose.

• Baseball Bat
• Lead Pipe
• Desert Eagle
• Beretta
• Jackhammer
• Pump-Action Shotgun
• Sawed-Off Shotgun
• Colt Commando
• Ingram
• M79 Grenade Launcher
• Grenade
• Molotov Cocktail
• Sniper rifle

Trivia

• The map in the conference room of Horne's penthouse had several red dots marking different locations around the world, including Houston, New York City, Frankfurt, Melbourne, Saint Petersburg, and the Kemi region of Finland. It is unknown whether these were the locations of Aesir facilities or places of interest for Aesir business.
• The building can still be seen standing with the Manhattan skyline in the Max Payne 3 chapter Anyone Can Buy Me a Drink while on the rooftops. 

Appearances

• Max Payne
  • Part III: A Bit Closer to Heaven
    • Nothing to Lose
    • Pain and Suffering

Gallery

The building's lobby

One of the building's security features

Max overlooking Aesir headquarters' security mainframe

Max looking out from the building's penthouse.

Conference room in Nicole Horne's penthouse

A police helicopter en route to Aesir headquarters

An aerial view of the building's roof