Vey-Medical
Vey-Med is one of the newer TSCs on the block and is notable for being largely owned and operated by Skrell. Despite the suspicion and prejudice leveled at them for their alien origin, Vey-Med has obtained market dominance in the sale of medical equipment-- from surgical tools to large medical devices to the Odysseus trauma response mecha and everything in between. Their equipment tends to be top-of-the-line, most obviously shown by their incredibly human-like FBP designs. Vey’s rise to stardom came from their introduction of resurrective cloning, although in recent years they’ve been forced to diversify as their patents expired and NanoTrasen-made medications became essential to modern cloning.
Contents
Early History
Most of Vey-Med's technological innovations are human-focused adaptations of technology at use in Skrell space for centuries. After decades of worsening relations between various Qerr-Katish borderlands and SolGov, and a corresponding increase in popular support for Ue-Katish immigration, the Gli'morr Council of Sciences announced their formal support for several contentious technologies, most notably resurrective cloning, being "gifted" to humanity. Many other influential councils followed, leading to the incorporation of Vey-Med in 2475.
Backed financially by some of the richest monarchs in Skrell space and staffed by wealthy expatriates of all castes, Vey-Med became one of the most influential TSCs practically overnight. The early years of Vey Medical brought its creditors billions of Thalers annually and helped reinforce Sol-Qerr friendship. Vey-Med became a powerful player in the early years of the Shadow Coalition, helping to refine their stance on transgressive technology and increase popular support for various medical interventions.
Vey-Meds fortunes, however, soon fell, as the outbreak of the Contact War and Skrellian neutrality during the early phases of the conflict brought xenophobia to an all-time high since the end of the Green Panic in 2335. Vey-Med was pointedly excluded from the SEO, which emerged from the chaos of the Contact War as a much more dynamic social force than the SC. Shortly after Icarus' loss of the majority in 2534, Vey-Med's exclusive patent on cloning was revoked, prompting a vigorous restructuring of the company that led to the development of the Odysseus, among others.
Relationship with the Almach Protectorate Government and Occupation Forces
A much needed windfall for Vey-Medical was the occupation of the Almach Protectorate by skrellian forces from the Far Kingdoms. The Far Kingdoms, seeking local investment by "responsible" parties, heavily favored Skrellian commercial interests, including Vey-Med, in establishing trade ties during reconstruction. This allowed Vey-Medical to establish outposts studying Aetolian biology in Vounna and Angessian bio-augmentation in Angessa's Pearl far ahead of its competitors in NanoTrasen or Zeng-Hu. Several lucrative patents were registered during this period, partially ending Vey-Med's dependence on technological 'gifts' from Skrellian academies. The widespread legalization of cosmetic genetic modification also provided Vey a new market, for which they heavily competed with the newborn Kaleidoscope Cosmetics.
The Skathari Incursion, and The Five Arrows
The Skathari Incursion, while as damaging to Vey-Med facilities as any other company's, also earned Vey a variety of lucrative government medical contracts (though attempts to study the skathari provided very little of use). It also paved the way for the secession of the Five Arrows in the Sagittarius Heights, where Vey is heavily invested. Five Arrows streamlined technological regulations and less interventionist government greatly benefitted Vey's profit margins and research efforts, while the refusal of New Ohio to secede kept their headquarters in Sol space.
Modern Day
Prior to the end of the Almach War, it was a commonly held belief that Vey-Med was on the way out, with cloning ceded to NanoTrasen and Zeng-Hu regaining share in the medical supplies market. Even after the restructuring of 2534 brought in a variety of new blood, Vey-Med remained dominated by Skrell who are, by and large, unfamiliar with the principles that human capitalists have known practically since birth. It was their skrellian leadership, however, that earned them the preferential treatment that continues to underline their commercial success. The increasing fragmentation of the Skrellian cultural bloc continues to afford them opportunities to grow and expand. Once considering breaking their ties with influential Skrellian governments, the newly ascendant Vey-Medical is now closer to them than ever.
Since its loss of the exclusive patent on cloning, the most popular and widely-recognized Vey-Med products are the Odysseus, a medical exosuit bringing the speed and utility of an ambulance to the cramped halls of most space colonies, and the Vey-Med prosthetic line, designed to mimic either human or Skrellian physiology near-perfectly. This allows those with ideological opposition to cloning to retain an organic appearance after death, and means that Vey-Med profits greatly off of discouraging the use of their former flagship product. While the prosthesis is sometimes used by the wealthiest and most venerable positronics, doing so comes with a great deal of stigma from humans concerned about the inherently suspicious nature of "replicants", and other positronics who accuse these same "replicants" of selling out to human values. In general, the prosthesis is exorbitantly expensive, often hand-crafted, and in all cases based on Skrellian engineering principles even the most ambitious human biomechanical engineers couldn't hope to match. Prices generally start at "a small house" and go up from there.
Prosthetics
The most advanced humanoid prosthetic on the market, Vey-Med prides itself on its highly realistic synthskin, near-seamlessly integrated with the most sensitive tactile suite yet created (aside from that of Bishop, with whom they have a long-running friendly rivalry). Vey-Med seeks to be indistinguishable from a human body by both outside observers and by the patient themself, a point at which it succeeds handily.
The main downside to Vey-Med is its incredibly high pricetag-- easily comparable with that of a large house. Every Vey-Med piece is custom-sculpted for its individual owner, usually based on scans of the owner's previous body or the owner's family. Vey-Med also requires regular maintenance, lest the partially-organic synthskin that coats each piece begin to rot.
Many nouveau riche and lottery winners have splurged on a Vey-Med chassis, only to discover that they couldn't keep it maintained. Such individuals contribute to the large and semi-legal market of second, third, and forth-hand Vey-Med chasses, which are cheaper than a store-bought one, but not by very much. Vey-Medical forbids resale of its prosthetics line, and works hard to shut down illicit sales. Potential buyers of a pre-owned Vey-Medical chassis should avoid deals that seem too good to be true, lest they discover that their new body is a Zeng-Hu with a layer of epoxy.
Vey-Med bodies are only accessible to Wealthy characters, almost exclusively humans. Positronics find them unsettling in much the same way humans do Morpheus, and the idea of putting a drone in a Vey-Med body, if not a crude joke, is utterly ridiculous to anyone with any sort of sense. They are absolutely inappropriate for manual labor or combat, being fragile and usually fairly weak compared to other prosthetics.
