Cryonics

	For other technology related to low temperatures, see cryogenics.

Cryonics is the low-level temperature preservation of humans and animals in suspended animation by slowing their vital functions, for the purposes of preserving them and keeping them alive for extended periods of time.

Background[]

Before the Great War, several companies and government agencies are known to have produced cryonic life preservation technology. In response, the public would remain skeptical of the technology and its safety.^[1]

Fallout 2[]

The United States Armed Forces experimented with cryonic technology, creating the systems and using cryonic chambers in the Sierra Army Depot. One example is the cryonic submergence of PFC Dobbs in bio med gel.

Fallout 3[]

The Enclave's scientific personnel at the Raven Rock base in the Capital Wasteland have several rooms dedicated to stasis, and their prisoner restraints use the same systems. These chambers have been used to preserve yao guai, deathclaws, super mutants, feral ghouls, and human prisoners. Whether these stasis chambers are built for long-term preservation on the scale of years is unknown. Vault 87 was equipped with four stasis chambers as standard issue.^[2]

Upon completing the quest Finding the Garden of Eden the Lone Wanderer is stunned, cryonically stored aboard a Vertibird and taken to Raven Rock as is witnessed by Three Dog's informants.^[3]

Mothership Zeta[]

The alien civilization aboard Mothership Zeta made cryonics a core aspect of their invasion and their research. They worked by entirely sealing the subject and the chamber from the outside, and used freezing cold air to suspend the subject. When opening, the chamber would decompress and stabilize with outside air, and force the subject to drop to the floor. Apecialized cryo lab aboard was Zeta dedicated to keeping their various abducted subjects stored between experimentation and interviews. This storage was seemingly capable of keeping its subjects alive healthily for centuries, though it was not without risk. Under certain conditions, it could lead to the subject expiring upon being thawed.

Fallout: New Vegas[]

Before the Great War, Robert House and his company, as well as the Big Mountain Research Facility, are known to have produced technology within the cryogenic and cryonic field. Robert House extensively researched extending human life and created his own life support chamber that allowed the user to connect their brain pattern and consciousness to an external interface. House hopes that with the Courier's help, he will be able to make the same cryonic technology he uses available to other high-value individuals in the future.

The only instance of this technology in the Mojave Wasteland is House's life support chamber in the Lucky 38. It is an advanced piece of technology, linking Robert House to an external interface, from which he has access to large amounts of data from the Lucky 38's mainframe, as well as the ability to control his Securitrons. Opening the chamber, even for a second, will doom the subject to having only little more than a year left at life due to exposure to outside contaminants.

Dead Money[]

Elijah mentions hibernation chambers produced by Big Mountain while talking to the Courier.^[4]

Fallout 4[]

Vault 111, located in Boston, was built to observe the effects of suspended animation on unsuspecting test subjects for 180 days, and holds multiple cryosleep pods. They are first shown to the Sole Survivor pre-War, disguised as "decontamination" pods. The Sole Survivor was preserved for exactly 210 years, with their spouse and son being taken in the year 2227, 150 years in. All the other residents of the Vault perished by 2227, due to Conrad Kellogg not reactivating their life support, with Shaun being abducted as an infant by him for the Institute. Green stasis tanks are also seen holding super mutants in the FEV Lab in the Institute's BioScience sector.

Developed pre-War by the United States Armed Forces's Research Laboratory, the LEAP-X program utilized cryonics for the preservation of fifteen pounds of organic matter (a human head). John-Caleb Bradberton would seek out this technology and offer his company's deep coffers and research into quantum mechanics to solicit General C. Braxton in obtaining the plans and materials for accomplishing the procedure on himself.

Fallout 76[]

Steel Dawn[]

Before the Great War, Vault 96 housed approximately 10,000 species in cryonic bays, such as beavers.^[5] A special bay, Cryonics Bay 86, was utilized to house an unknown organism.^[6] The chief engineer of the Vault, Hans Memling, had a PhD in Cryonic Engineering.^[7] After the Great War, the Vault studied various mutations, including implanting and splicing them into creatures, one such mutation was cryokinesis.^[8]

Fallout TV series[]

In Vault 31, a number of Vault-Tec junior executives were kept in cryonic chambers and revived only when one was needed to lead Vault 32 or Vault 33 as an overseer. They included Hank MacLean, Betty Pearson and Steph Harper.^[9]

In 2077, just before the Great War, billboards advertised cryo suites at The Tops Hotel and Casino, guaranteeing "100% safety" (with some small print), depicting a device similar to the life support chamber used by Robert House himself.^[9]

Fallout Tactics[]

Vault 0 kept pre-War geniuses in cryogenic stasis, by extracting their brains from their body and freezing them. They were then hooked up to the Calculator supercomputer, melding all of the identities of each connected brain into one. The vault also has a corresponding cryo lab to regulate these conditions.^{[Non-canon 1]}

Van Buren[]

The Boulder Dome in Denver was equipped with prototype military medical cryo tanks that had a very high malfunction rate, and before the Great War, scientists were frozen in sleeper tanks. Victor Presper continued to use the equipment during his time spent there. The Prisoner can wake them up by utilizing skill checks in Medicine and with the correct terminal.^{[Non-canon 2]}

Notes[]

• A rare side-effect of cryonic stasis is post-cryogenic syndrome. The condition results in the patient completely dissolving mere seconds after leaving stasis.
• Cryonics and cryogenics, while sometimes erroneously used as synonyms, are in fact two separate terms. Cryogenics is in fact the study of the production and behavior of materials at very low temperatures, of which cryonics is only a small part.

Appearances[]

Cryonic technology appears in Fallout 2, Van Buren, Fallout 3, its add-on Mothership Zeta, Fallout: New Vegas and its add-on Old World Blues, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, the Fallout TV series and Fallout Tactics. It is also mentioned in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Dead Money.

Gallery[]

References[]

Non-canon