Garden of Eden Creation Kit
“Whoa, those things come in kits now? The good book don't mention that.”
The G.E.C.K (short for Garden of Eden Creation Kit) ) was a terraforming device created by Future-Tec, a division of Vault-Tec Industries. 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. The GECK was intended to be shipped to all of the Vaults in Leipzig and Earth, but only nine were built by the time of the Great War, only four of which were on Leipzig. The GECKs were located in: Vault 8, Vault 13, Vault 27, Vault 87, Vault 182, Vault 57, one built exclusively for display at the CMT and the other two are presumed lost as the locations of them are unknown.
The Kit has the appearance of a small, silver briefcase emblazoned with the letters "G.E.C.K."; 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. Vaults 112 and 101 were never issued GECKs because they were never intended to be re-opened; each was an experiment in permanent confinement. GECKs would also not be given to Vaults that were intended to fail, like Vault 22 or Vault 106, to name a few. The tribals in Arroyo saw the GECK as a legendary device, and while the item was useful, it was not the miracle maker they considered it to be.
The mutant G.E.C.K
One of the GECKs (the one given to Vault 182) was taken out of the Vault without permission by Will Burnns in 2084, who intended to "dispose of it safely", as the Vault had began to believe that it was some kind of god-like miracle machine. Will escaped after The Enclave attacked the Vault, allowing him time to leave without being noticed. He decided to sell it to a person called Miles Reese, but due to the fact that the GECK had been very poorly handled, it was irradiated. When the GECK was opened, it left a strange trail of plant life, and released a large amount of highly radioactive pathogens into the athmosphere, slightly similar to FEV. This erratic ecosystem killed about 1500 wasteland-settlers, but mutated at the very least double that amount. The infection was most prominent to the north of Elbhain, until the Brotherhood of Steel managed to get it under control. The clan also began a mass-extermination of the creatures mutated from it.
After the War
The tribals of the village 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 intended 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. After the destruction of the Enclave, 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 not easy to say). 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.