GECK



The Garden of Eden Creation Kit or GECK was a device created by Future-Tec, a division of the corporation Vault-Tec Industries, which was meant 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.

Appearance
The Kit looks like a small, silver briefcase emblazoned with the letters G.E.C.K.; and, 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 Vault 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.

The GECK's designers had no idea what the post-nuclear world would actually be like, and they had no real way to anticipate it, despite their "thorough tests". It's doubtful that they actually gave it much thought, considering how badly organized the Project Safehouse program was, not to mention the experimental nature of the Vaults themselves, since they were never intended to actually provide real safety from a global disaster. Still, it seems as if the seeds present in the GECK were viable for Vault 8. The GECK's designers assumed that the Vault dwellers would know how to read and how to operate the various advanced technologies present in the Vault - they did not plan for the reduced knowledge of pre-War technologies common among wasteland tribals or other similar contingencies. They also did not plan on the FEV getting released into the wider world, or the fact that the Vault dwellers might be attacked by giant mutated scorpions, cockroaches or rats, either.

The GECK's seeds and soil supplements date themselves rather quickly, but the government subcommittees sponsoring the research and the GECK's Future-Tec contractor weren't really concerned about that. They were "relatively certain" the seeds would be viable in a post-nuclear environment. They had done "thorough tests," and "all conclusions point to this as being the best option." The GECKs are a miracle; if only in the sense that they should work at all.

Actual contents
The GECK isn't really a replicator in the sense of a machine that can refashion unformed raw materials into new molecular combinations that create original items and substances as seen in the universe of Star Trek. Instead, it contains a fertilizer system filled with a variety of food seeds, soil supplements, and chemicals that could turn arid, irradiated wasteland (and possibly selected sections of the Moon's surface pre-conditioned to accept the GECK) into fertile soil perfect for farming. The GECK is intended to be "disassembled" over the course of its use to help build new communities (for example, the cold fusion power source is intended to be used for primary power production in a new city), and so on. For anything else from the pre-War society people needed, they could simply consult the How To Books/complete Library of Congress collection/Encyclopedias contained in the GECK's extensive holodisk library for more knowledge. The pen flashlight included in the Kit was just a bonus.

The GECK also contained some basic force field schematics as well as information on how to make adobe-type buildings from the landscape (or it contained chemicals that could create "sand-crete" walls).

As for clothing, the GECK contained codes that allowed the Vault to create more varieties of jumpsuits (and weatherproof gear) from their fabric dispensers,an ability all Vaults possessed to clothe their residents even without the GECK's instructions. It's possible the GECK contained other codes that could unlock more functionality within the Vault's computers that weren't initially available to Vault populations because they would jeopardize the survival of a sealed Vault if they were used or scavenged (or else they would interfere with the Project Safehouse's experiments).

The GECK could also tell a Vault's inhabitants how to disassemble sections of their Vault (or take extraneous systems from the Vault) to create new homes and defensive structures on the surface.

Fallout 2
The tribals of the town of Arroyo 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. The tribals were invoking the GECK as a panacea for all their problems and saw it as a miraculous artifact. But while the item is useful, it's not the miracle maker they considered it to be.

Still, while the GECK simply isn't the holy cure-all the inhabitants of Arroyo intended it to be, in the right hands it's a very useful piece of pre-War technology that can help establish a viable new community in the post-nuclear wastelands. After the destruction of the Enclave, the dwellers of Vault 13 rescued from the Oil Rig used it to create the town of New Arroyo.

The only known successful use of the GECK (though whether it can be attributed to the GECK alone is debatable) was the creation of Vault City (by the former inhabitants of Vault 8). 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.

Fallout 3
When the Lone Wanderer locates his father in Stanislaus Braun's Vault 112, he learns that in order to make Project Purity work properly, he requires a G.E.C.K. After his father's demise at the hands of Colonel Augustus Autumn, the Wanderer makes his way to Vault 87, a horrendously irradiated location, where he acquires a single G.E.C.K. unit.

Not consistent with previous games is the effect this version of the G.E.C.K. has: As stated in-game, "The G.E.C.K. will collapse all matter within its given radius and recombine it to form a living, breathing, fertile virgin landscape and allow life to begin anew." 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 Potomac River that flows through it. If activated on its own, a blue energy ball expands around the G.E.C.K. killing the player's character and, after a burst of white light, the nearest save game is loaded. If you use the console code tgm, activating the G.E.C.K. will throw you to the floor. You wont be dead but you can't do anything else.

Appearances in games
The GECK first appeared only in the Fallout game manual and later became an important part of Fallout 2's plot. GECKs are also mentioned early in Fallout 3 and later serve as an important MacGuffin again to advance the plot.

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 Fallout3 website.

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 McGuffins go, 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 (whilst killing every present living thing in its working radius upon activation).

Generator Ekosystemu Cudownej Krainy ГЭКК