GECK





The Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) was a terraforming device created by Future-Tec, a division of the Vault-Tec Corporation. Its purpose was to revitalize areas of a post-nuclear wasteland. The concept of the device as well as its design was completed by Doctor Stanislaus Braun, a brilliant, if egotistical, Vault-Tec researcher.

Characteristics
The Kit has the appearance of a small, silver briefcase emblazoned with the letters "G.E.C.K."; according to Vault-Tec advertisements, it contains all the seeds, fertilizer, and other equipment (including a cold fusion power generator and a basic replicator) necessary to start a new settlement in a post-nuclear world after emerging from a Vault shelter.

Each Vault was presumably issued with two GECKs, except for Vaults 8, 13, 112, and 101; Vault 8's extra GECK got swapped (whether by accident or some nefarious scheme, this is not known) with Vault 13's surplus water chips that had been ordered as backups. Vaults 112 and 101 were never issued GECKs because they were never intended to be re-opened; each was an experiment in permanent confinement.

The Garden of Eden Creation Kit is a device capable of radically altering the Wasteland and transforming dead, irradiated soil into viable land suitable for farming; it is implied, though not confirmed, that this is the usual mode of operation for a GECK in Fallout 2. However, there is significant disagreement as to what a GECK actually does; the only time we see one properly in action (rather than merely the results) is in Fallout 3.

Actual contents


The GECK was built as a matter-energy replicator and miraculous terraforming device, transforming an area into energy and then reforming it according to a certain molecular pattern. Certainly, the actual devices built to the specifications of Stanislaus Braun, Vault-Tec's "Sorcerer-Scientist" were such.

As a way to reconcile these two differing accounts of the GECK - the way it was originally intended, and the way the latter-day games portray them - one could say that only a few GECKs were actually built to spec, with the others being mere "promotional copies" to hand out to West Coast Vaults. However, even if the GECK is taken at face value - that is, if they were indeed the miracle devices promised by Braun and Vault-Tec - they would be consistent with the portrayal in Fallout 2, as seen at Vault City and New Arroyo.

Fallout 2
The tribals of the town of Arroyo, which was founded by the Vault Dweller, passed down stories of the "Holy GECK," which they came to believe was a sacred, magical item which can change the Wasteland into fertile land again.

Though the GECK may not have been the holy cure-all the tribal inhabitants of Arroyo believed it to be, in the right hands it was a very useful piece of pre-War technology that could help establish a viable new community in the post-nuclear wastelands. Alternately it was indeed a miraculous device, capable of terraforming the Wasteland into something far more. Either way, after the destruction of the Enclave Oil Rig, the dwellers of Vault 13 rescued from the Oil Rig used it to rebuild Arroyo.

The GECK was instrumental in the creation of Vault City by the former inhabitants of Vault 8 (though whether the city's success can be attributed to the GECK alone is debatable). By combining their GECK's contents with power from Vault 8's fusion generator, the residents of Vault City were able to erect their settlement's first buildings and generate arable farmland.

Fallout 3
When the Lone Wanderer locates his/her father in Stanislaus Braun's Vault 112, he/she learns that in order to make Project Purity work properly, he/she requires a G.E.C.K. After James' demise, the Wanderer makes their way to Vault 87, a horrendously irradiated location, where they acquire a G.E.C.K. unit.

It seems that in no other vault a G.E.C.K was issued. In the Capital Wasteland at least, hinting that very few vaults were issued with G.E.C.K.'s, probably due to the price of each unit. There is also no mention of any Vaults in the Mojave Wasteland having a G.E.C.K. There is also no mention of a G.E.C.K. in most vaults that have been mentioned in-game and the Fallout Bible. It also seems illogical to spend large amounts of money on a piece of tech in a Vault that is going to fall into ruin, like Vault 22 or Vault 106.

This version of the G.E.C.K. is a far more advanced piece of technology than the implied agricultural starter kit the developers of the previous games intended it to be. In this case, when included as a component within Project Purity's Purifier, the G.E.C.K. helps that other technology remove all radioactive particles from the water of the River Potomac that flows through it.

In Fallout 3, it is possible for the Lone Wanderer to reach the GECK instead of allowing Fawkes to retrieve it, thus allowing the player to activate it. If activated on its own, a blue energy ball expands around the GECK killing the player's character and, after a burst of white light, the nearest save game is loaded.

Mutant GECKs
The stories of Fallout Tactics 2 and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel 2 were to revolve around "mutant" GECK units, which had become infected with radioactive pathogens and caused mutant plant and animal life to expand and consume huge swaths of land. While the origin of the Tactics 2 GECK is unknown, the GECK in Brotherhood of Steel 2 was found by a former Cypher called Miles Reese. In both situations, the GECKs were "terraformer" type units, like the Fallout 3 GECK.

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel 2
Miles Reese was conducting research into the GECKs capabilities, which led him to the Nursery where he stole a prototype GECK with the hopes of terraforming the wasteland into a new, greener, and human free "Eden." The GECK, still not quite mastered by Miles, created a patchwork of lush vegetation in the areas he travelled through. Upon reaching the Gulf of Mexico, Miles toiled with the GECK for five years, greatly magnifying its effects, not concerned with the immense effects it was capable of when combined with an FEV environment. The GECK could now terraform on a dangerous scale, including within enclosed structures, and occasionally produced carnivorous plants. It could generate unnatural weather patterns and his experiments created jungles within deserts, and the Gulf, who's water had apparently retreated a considerable distance, re-flooded on an even larger scale. As Miles continued to tinker with the GECK its capabilities became sharpened and could focus its power into more specific tasks such as protecting Miles' base, the Corpse, with an organic shell.

Armed with an extremely dangerous and refined piece of technology, or New Eden device as he referred to it, Miles continued with his ultimate goal. He went on to exploit the Jackals to his own end, all the while planning to eliminate them with biological mini-bombs which detonate at his command created by the GECK that he infected them with.

A second GECK was found by the player character in an Austin gas station, which they would go on to use to overload Miles' mutant GECK causing a devastating explosion.

It seems a combination of continual exposure, self-augmentation experiments and control over the GECK altered Miles into a being capable of symbiotic relations with the plant life it generated, vines protruded from his person and he was capable of merging with the plants themselves.

As the SDK
The Fallout 3 SDK (Software Development Kit), called "The G.E.C.K.", has been released and is up for download at the official Fallout 3 website. It is also available for Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * According to Chris Taylor, the G.E.C.K. was created by Jason Anderson and Leonard Boyarsky for the Fallout game manual - it wasn't intended to be used in Fallout 2. But as far as a MacGuffin goes, it was there when it was needed.
 * The G.E.C.K. (or more precisely, its intended function in Fallout 3) might be a reference to the movies Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: The Search for Spock, which revolve around "Project Genesis" and the Genesis Device. Like the variant of the G.E.C.K. encountered in Fallout 3, the Genesis Device is intended to be used to create life out of lifelessness (while killing every present living thing in its working radius upon activation).
 * There is no clarification from Bethesda on how to reconcile the two radically different views of the G.E.C.K. The view of the GECK as a miracle device is a far cry from the view of the GECK as a pretty useful piece of pre-War agricultural technology.