Gecko (town)

Gecko is a ghoul town northeast of Vault City, founded in 2236. Its economy is based on the operation of an old, half-functional Poseidon Energy nuclear power plant #5. Harold is the de facto mayor of Gecko, while he is assisted by Lenny, who also serves as Gecko's doctor. The power plant is administered by Festus.

Location
Gecko can be found twenty-two squares east and two squares south of Arroyo.

Background
Gecko is a place where ghouls end up, rather than a destination. Most ghouls found themselves unwelcome in human habitations. They've also found comfort in the close proximity of the atomic power plant, some even living inside the reactor building to be closer to the warming fire of the atom.

Gecko's citizens are divided between the renewal cultists and the more ordinary ghouls, who resent the cult. The renewal cultists seek to "renew," i.e. become human again. They are headed by a giant, sentient mole rat who lives in an underground cave adjacent to the reactor, known as the Brain, who seeks to take over the world. In the short term, he seeks to build an alliance between Gecko and Vault City based on power from Gecko being sent to Vault City in exchange for medical research on how to "restore" the ghouls to humanity. The cult is symbolized by the ankh, as its members wear ankh necklaces.

Interestingly, the name comes from a pre-war town in the vicinity, Gecko City, for which the Nuclear power plant was supplying power.

Settlement


The Harp is a bar tended by Wooz. It serves the usual drinks of Gecko, specialized for ghouls' unique resistance to radiation: Gamma Gulp beer and Roentgen rum. Wooz is a rather eccentric ghoul: he tells strange stories of severed heads in hell and is obsessed with playing Tragic: the Garnering, although he isn't as good at it as he thinks.

The Manager's Office is the seat from which Harold tries to keep Gecko together. It supplies part requisition forms and oversees reports concerning the power plant.

Junkyard


The junkyard is where Gecko's unfinished second reactor lies, rusty and decaying for the past one hundred and sixty years. The Survival Gear Locker is a general store of Gecko. Percival Crump, a.k.a. Percy owns this store. He offers a decent selection of rad-resistance drugs, weapons, and ammunition. His friend, Woody. has recently gone missing.

Inhabiting the Poseidon Machine Shop is Skeeter, who is a “ghoul gadgeteer” who serves as a sort of mechanic for Gecko. He can perform weapon upgrades and, more importantly, has a fuel cell controller. However, he is considered unreliable by the ghouls who administer Gecko's supply locker/storage room, since he once caused a fire, and as such he is typically denied part requisition forms. He is assisted by "Lumpy" John, a human refugee from Vault City who has no visible mutations like the ghouls, but is considered unacceptably mutated by the Citizens in Vault City because of his unusual resistance to radiation. Lumpy also helps guard Gecko's brahmin. Gordon is a ghoul who believes that if everyone would follow their own self-interest, everyone would be better off. He proudly believes that greed is good, and wants to optimize Gecko's power plant and establish trade with Vault City based on their mutual self-interests. He is also a member of the renewal cult.

Nuclear power plant


The nuclear power plant is the heart of Gecko's economy. The plant's supply cabinet and storage room are administered by Jeremy, the plant overall is managed by Festus, and the reactor control room is watched by Hank.

Much of the installation is damaged beyond repair - the rooms are littered with destroyed terminals and damaged furniture, the control room doesn't have any gauges or monitors functioning and even the maintenance robot cannot run properly for longer periods of time. And then there's the groundwater contamination problem which affects Vault City and its inhabitants.

With 50% Science, the player can contact the Enclave (a talking head soldier) leading to a funny conversation with a reference to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.