Victory At Any Cost (Patreon)

Extranet Weekly Lifestyle // January 17, 2181Interview by Joralin PriceWhen you first meet Zedd Victors, you don’t immediately clock the man who’s turning a small chunk of the Traverse into his personal playground. Lean, sharp-eyed, and dressed in a no-name blue jacket that could've been pulled off any rack in the Citadel, he doesn’t exactly project trillionaire tycoon. But then he talks and you're reminded that this is a man who's sold more hoverboards and affordable industrial-grade hardsuits in the last two years than some governments have fielded soldiers.

But what does it really mean to be this powerful, this fast? And at what cost?

We sat down with the 20-year-old industrialist to find out.JORALIN PRICE: "First things first, Zedd—Victory Innovations. The name almost feels… prophetic. Did you know you were building an empire when you started selling hoverboards?"

ZEDD VICTORS: (grins faintly) "didn’t know. didn’t care. i was bored. figured i’d make something better than the trash we were stuck with. turns out a lotta people agreed."JORALIN: "Your products are everywhere now. The V-Glide alone sold five million units in 2180. But some critics argue that colonists are becoming dependent on your technology in ways they don’t fully understand. How do you respond?"

ZEDD: (shrugs) "you need boots to walk, right? nobody cries about boot manufacturers brainwashing people into wearing shoes."JORALIN: "Except these boots come with kineti-ZEDD VICTORS: "kinesis. the term is kinesis."JORALIN: ...kinesis emmiters and high-grade stabilization fields. Isn’t it a little different?"

ZEDD: (leans back, smiling wider) "sounds like you’re complaining about quality. you want a crappier hoverboard, go make one."JORALIN: "Victory Innovations also supplies defensive gear, weapons, medical systems... Even QEC comm satellites now. Rumors have it that you're even working with Sirta to produce more effective medi-gel. Isn’t that a lot of control to put in the hands of one company? Your company?"

ZEDD: (flat) "nobody twisted their arm to buy what i sell. competition’s out there. it just sucks."JORALIN: "But some analysts warn that Victory is becoming a colonial monopoly in all but name. They suggest that one man—one company—dictating supply chains could pose a major threat if your...let’s say, 'business priorities' ever shifted."

ZEDD: (smirks) "i’m not in the charity business. i make things people need. people buy them. they get better. that's the deal. if that scares some people, maybe they should’ve built faster."JORALIN: "Interesting you say that. Victory’s manufacturing facilities are notoriously closed off. Your patents are blackboxed. Your products are near-impossible to reverse-engineer. Transparency advocates argue that Victory Innovations is actively hostile to oversight."

ZEDD: (snorts) "yeah. bc letting bureaucrats poke around in my tech sounds real smart. blackboxing keeps my people safe. keeps the tech working. besides, on whose authority do they have for that? I'm not in Citadel or Alliance space."JORALIN: "Some argue that was a purposeful move to avoid oversight."

ZEDD: "Well, some should build instead of spending time thinking about how I do business."

JORALIN: "Last question, Zedd. In five years, where do you see yourself?"

ZEDD: (grins razor-thin) "wherever i want. doing whatever i want. still winning."