Organization:Vac-U-Vend

Vac-U-Vend, a subsidiary of Enbox, is a vending machine operator that sells various products via connections to the Gaian pneumatic mail system. Products range from Sosa-Soda to Superhuman Ability Modules to tubes of lipstick, depending on the individual machines, of which there are dozens of varieties.

Suppliers
While Vac-U-Vend provides a huge selection of different products across its vending machines, the suppliers of SAMs are limited to Cumulus, KriiTek, and Lovelace-Turing Research.

The Vac-U-Vend™ System
Invented by the Enbox company as a way to make use of the "dead end" dynamail ports at the top of every Enbox Modular Housing System, the Vac-U-Vend™ System was heavily patented after its invention in 11972 GHE, including using electrical currents running through the dynamail pipes to signal between the vending units, dynamail traffic control and Vac-U-Vend's warehouses. The currents would be sensed by the local Vac-U-Vend mainframe, which would convert the current into the Dynamail Traffic Control networking code and vice versa.

Competitors could not use the Vac-U-Vend proprietary components until 11992 GHE, but due to the open source nature of dynamail, the Traffic-Lite and CapSeller proprietary systems would both be implemented by their respective owners within the 20 year duration of the patent.

Vac-U-Vend™ is still a trademark of Enbox, however the trademark only applies to the vending machines, as the Vac-U-Vend proprietary system was merged into the open source OpenVendor system in 11999 GHE.

Vac-U-Vend™ Units
Vac-U-Vend machines are called such because the first units relied on vacuum tubes to power its primitive electronic interface. The myth that Vac-U-Vend was chosen in reference to the dynamail system is incorrect, as d-mail uses magnetic propulsion rather than pneumatic tube technology.

Vac-U-Vend machines usually have local storage to store a few of the most popular items that the machine has sold.

There are dozens of varieties of Vac-U-Vend machines, enough to fill a book, but notable Vac-U-Vend versions include...


 * The original Vac-U-Vend, now known as VAC-001. These used vacuum tubes to allow selection from one of 8 different products stored in Vac-U-Vend's underground warehouses. Due to the long waiting period required after selecting a product and poor mechanical design, most VAC-001 units still in use vend one type of product and only rely on dynamail for restocking.
 * The VAC-505x series of digital vending machines. The VAC-5051 through 5054 used a touchscreen CRT monitor to select from one of 16 different products. Later models in the series featured newer components and technologies, such as LCD screens and eXtended Reality.
 * The VAC-375, which dispensed pastries worth exactly 100 COINs.
 * The VAC-1337, which dispenses EmuCarts. The machine is designed like an arcade machine and takes 25 COINs per play, with various original titles like Venus R, Blastoids and Core Wizard built into the machine. Scoring a high number of points allows the user to either submit their high score for bragging rights or spend the points to receive an EmuCart via the dynamail system.
 * The VAC-777, also known as the "One-Armed Robin Hood". These machines are not actually gambling, but their appearance is easily mistaken for being luck-based. Instead, the user puts in any amount of COINs and pulls the slot-machine-style lever. A random product of similar value to the amount inserted will be dispensed, and any spare change is returned via the unit's coin tray.
 * The VAC-420, which has a keypad and dispenses Tweed cartridges. If the user has not lived a combined total of more than 25 years, the unit returns the inserted value and notifies local police. Notable for being designed while high.
 * The VAC-682, which doesn't actually exist but has a reputation similar to Polybius. Exact details about what VAC-682 looks like, dispenses or even accepts as currency vary depending on the person recounting the urban legend, but vaguely sinister overtones are common.