Slipspace field pod

Slipspace Field Pods are the Forerunner equivalent of the UNSC cryotubes. Instead of freezing a being in stasis they put the user into Slipspace where time stops.

Forerunner cryotubes are somehow connected to Slipspace and normal space, the actual bodies are within Slipspace, making them safe from nearly everything. (Nearly means that they might be able to get killed if they are engaged within Slipspace, otherwise, normal space can not hurt the person inside.)

They are visible via an afterimage seen within the pod, essentially a snapshot of the moment they "left" time. Although not technically in our space, those stored "within" the pods may be transported by moving the pods themselves. This method works as the Slipspace generator is located on each pod. If a person comes too close to the pod they will develop nausea, and a feeling of lightheadedness due to exposure of an unshielded slipspace field.

Currently, the method of releasing one from these pods is unknown.

THE FOLLOWING IS CONJECTURE AND NOT BASED ON FACTS. The Forerunner crystal that Dr. Halsey and the SPARTAN-II's found under ONI's CASTLE base on Reach may have been the key to opening the the Slipspace Field Pods. The way that the crystal distorts and warps Slipspace may be how the Forerunners planned on opening and retrieving the reclaimers inside or in this case the SPARTAN-III's.

This, however is based on fact. On the sides of the pods there are Forerunner icons which Dr. Catherine Halsey translated into "That which must be protected . . . behind the sharpened edge of the shield . . . beyond the reach of the swords . . . for the reclaimed", Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 337

Team Katana of SPARTAN-III Gamma Company are in Slipspace Field Pods and are with the other survivors of the Battle of Onyx in the Shield World.

Theory behind the Technology
Being in a Slipspace Field Pod can be compared to getting sucked into a black hole or what scientists think would happen if that were to occur. The gravity of the black hole distorts time the closer you get, at a certain point, stopping time for you (although a black hole singularity would probably kill you), and if another person was watching, they would see you frozen in time. You are visibly there, but you are not, you are stuck in a vacuum of time, which might be what causes those afterimages from the pods in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.