History Literature / MassEffectAnnihilation

* DistaffCounterpart: A crusty, foul-mouthed old former criminal who was betrayed by trusted associates and lost an eye. Borbala is a female batarian Zaead.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Early on, it's mentioned that the ''Keelah Si'yah'' didn't screen its intake too heavily, since they were willing to take anyone they could get. The end result is a lot of criminals, maniacs, religious fanatics, assholes, [[spoiler:and the captain being a complete nutjob.]]
** The quarians make absolutely sure their suits, ragtag and patched together from whatever they can find as they are, are utterly sealed. As it turns out, [[spoiler:six hundred years with no opportunity for a patch-up means tiny micro-fractures start showing up.]]

* SyntheticPlague: The virus on board is revealed to be this, and a very nasty one. The virus is an artificially engineered chimera made of various viruses that effect other species. It’s main strain is Yoqtan (volus chickenpox) with part of the genome of many other viruses bonded to it, including measles, Kepral’s Syndrome and at least one other artificially engineered virus – salarian-made – Ayalon B.
* TemptingFate: Early on, Irrit mentions that as a volus, her kind are safe from the virus thanks to their suits. This eventually turns out to be very wrong.
* ThereAreNoCoincidences: As Liat points out, a horrific plague and a severe computer bug hitting at the same time is too unlikely to be a coincidence. [[spoiler:She's right.]]

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: The book ends with the origin of the virus noted in the ship's logs as "unknown" and its likely that almost no one knows about Qetsi and Malak's involvement due to the potential backlash if her actions and motives behind them are discovered. It's likely history will only remember Qetsi for her death in spreading the cure...the cure for the virus she had created and was naturally immune to.]]

* YoureInsane: Anax, [[spoiler:to Qetsi]] on learning they're behind everything. She points out it sounds like something from a bad vid, but with the additional fact that it's ''true''.

* AdultFear: The first quarian victim of the virus is a little girl, who drops dead right in front of her mother.

* ContinuitySnarl: It is mentioned that the events of the original ''Mass Effect'' resulted in an influx of refugees from Noveria and Virmire. The events of those respective in-game missions take Shepard through a corporate and military setting, respectively, and in both areas there are few, if any, living civilians, certainly not enough for an "influx".

* SavedByCanon: A line toward the very end at least confirms that whatever's going to happen to the ''Keelah Si'yah'' and its crew in Andromeda, Senna at least will live for some years.

* FutureImperfect: At one point, Annax (a drell) thinks about the UsefulNotes/SchrodingersCat concept, but thinks it's an old human legend about a hero, not a thought experiment.

* LetNoCrisisGoToWaste: [[spoiler:When the virus starts really going rampant, Borbala and Annax run into people trying to sell false cures.]]

* RelationshipUpgrade: [[spoiler:At the end of the novel, Annax and Borbala.]]

* YoureInsane: Annax, [[spoiler:to Qetsi]] on learning they're behind everything. She points out it sounds like something from a bad vid, but with the additional fact that it's ''true''.

* RealityEnsues:
** Early on, it's mentioned that the ''Keelah Si'yah'' didn't screen its intake too heavily, since they were willing to take anyone they could get. The end result is a lot of criminals, maniacs, religious fanatics, assholes, [[spoiler:and the captain being a complete nutjob.]]
** The quarians make absolutely sure their suits, ragtag and patched together from whatever they can find as they are, are utterly sealed. As it turns out, [[spoiler:six hundred years with no opportunity for a patch-up means tiny micro-fractures start showing up.]]

Thirty years and hundreds of lightyears before the Nexus and 'the ark ''Hyperion'' would arrive in the Heleus Cluster, disaster had already struck the Initiative.

* CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker: Eventually, Qetsi starts broadcasting instructions over the ship's tannoy. Borbala doesn't find them remotely useful.
* CassandraTruth: Yorrik [[spoiler:suspected sabotage as soon as they encounter the first corpse and everyone else disagrees. Even Yorrik denied it, attributing his sudden theory to the medicine he’s taking. Later events prove him correct]].

* EmpathyDollShot: Averted. There is a doll involved, but its held in the death grip of a quarian child’s corpse, and the corpse is shown for all to see in the arms of the child’s grieving mother.

* TheGhost: The ship has more than one Pathfinder in stasis (due to the low numbers, some species have to double-up), but with the situation as it is, none of them are woken up both to protect them from viral infection and from the [=SAMs=] from potentially being affected by the ship's malfunctions.

* LudicrousGibs: The end result of the virus mixing with a volus, since it messes with their body temperature and pressure. End result, they explode ''inside their suits''.

* SequelHook: Just at the very end, as [[spoiler:everyone who's left goes into stasis, the ''Keelah Si'yah'' receives an incoming message from Andromeda, but no one's awake to receive it.]]

* NotNowKiddo: While Yorrik, Anax and Borbala are going through potential plans, Ysses tries interjecting, but being a hanar, its politeness and long-windedness means no-one's listening until it gets really tetchy and tells them to shut up and listen.

* SequelHook: Just at the very end, as [[spoiler:everyone who's left goes into stasis, the ''Keelah Si'yah'' receives an incoming message from Andromeda, but no-one's awake to receive it.]]

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: The book ends with the origin of the virus noted in the ship's logs as "unknown" and its likely that almost no-one knows about Qetsi and Malak's involvement due to the potential backlash if her actions and motives behind them are discovered. It's likely history will only remember Qetsi for her death in spreading the cure...the cure for the virus she had created and was naturally immune.]]

** [[spoiler:Qetsi states that no-one should bring old grudges to Andromeda, but her motivation is purely about settling old grudges.]]

** [[spoiler:Qetsi wanted to use her bioweapon to reduce the numbers of the Council races so the other races could rule instead, but she didn’t have a plan to resolve the issues of these races, such as the krogan’s warlike nature or the batarians strict caste system]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler:Once, a bunch of salarians played a prank on Qetsi that nearly got her killed, so on joining the Initiative, she decided to engineer a virus to kill off the salarians there. And the humans, turians, and asari for good measure. Slightly justified by the fact she is insane.]]

* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: During her crime lord days, one of Borbala's nieces tried to poison her with a particularly nasty batarian poison. Borbala was immune thanks to a long life of similar attempts on her life.

* ContinuitySnarl: Minor, but it's there.
** It is mentioned that the events of the original ''Mass Effect'' resulted in an influx of refugees from Noveria and Virmire. The events of those respective in-game missions take Shepard through a corporate and military setting, respectively, and in both areas there are few, if any, living civilians, certainly not enough for an "influx".

** Oliver Barnes owes money to Aria T’Loak.

* FantasticCasteSystem: The batarian's system is explored a little. The aristos are at the top, everyone and everything is beneath them. There's intellectual, merchants, military and finally slaves at the absolute bottom. Calling a batarian a member of a lower caste than they have is a grievous insult. Calling someone a member of the intellectual caste is ''not'' a compliment. But one batarian mentions it is possible, if difficult, to advance upwards.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: That the virus is artificial is revealed early into the investigation, but Yorrick notes a lot of the diseases are for species not on the ''Keelah''. [[spoiler:It's a hint as to who the virus was meant to be unleashed on.]]

* FutureImperfect: At one point, Annax (a drell) thinks about the Schrodinger's Cat theorem, but thinks it's an old human legend about a hero, not a thought experiment.

* TheGhost: The ship has more than one Pathfinder in stasis (due to the low numbers, some species have to double-up), but with the situation as it is, none of them are woken up both to protect them from viral infection and from the [=SAMs=] from potentially being affects by the ship's malfunctions.

* MagicalGuide: [[spoiler:Liat is a technological version, being a quarrian ancestor VI – the knowledge and personality of the quarian Senna's ancestor Liat, who was killed during the geth uprising on Rannoch centuries ago]].

* FromBadToWorse: The virus, then the systems are malfunctioning, then the force field malfunctions, then some of the citizens awake and start rioting as things go wrong...

* {{Hypocrite}}: Anax complains about a lack of sympathy for Kepral’s Syndrome from the quarian, but shows no regard for the quarians' weak immune systems that are unique to them.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: The book ends with the origin of the virus noted in the ship's logs as "unknown" and its likely that almost no-one knows about Qetsi and Malak's involvement due to the potential backlash if her actions and motives behind them are discovered. Its likely history will only remember Qetsi for her death in spreading the cure...the cure for the virus she had created and was naturally immune.]]

* TheGhost: The ship has more than one Pathfinder in stasis (due to the low numbers, some species have to double-up), but with the situation as it is, none of them are woken up both to protect them from viral infection and from the SAMs from potentially being affects by the ship's malfunctions.

* LudicrousGibs: The end result of the virus mixing with a volus, since it messes with their body temperature and pressure. End result, they explode ''inside their suits''.

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Qetsi's FreudianExcuse for her actions was a vicious prank by a group Salarian students who stripped her of her suit and left her outside for a few minutes. Not only was she naturally immune which is used to create the retrovirus, but to distribute it, she is forced to walk naked through the entire ship and make physical contact with them.]]

* ShoutOut: Since Yorrick is a big Shakespear fanboy, he often quotes from it, with (naturally) ''Hamlet'' as a favorite.

** One character owes money to Aria T’Loak.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: The book ends with the origin of the virus noted in the ship's logs as "unknown" and its likely that almost no-one knows about Qetsi and Malak's involvment due to the potential backlash if her actions and motives behind them are discovered. Its likely history will only remember Qetsi for her death in spreading the cure...the cure for the virus she had created and was naturally immuned.]]

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: The book ends with the origin of the virius noted in the ship's logs as "unknown" and its likely that almost no-one knows about Qetsi and Malak's involvment due to the potential backlash if her actions and motives behind them are discovered. Its likely history will only remember Qetsi for her death in spreading the cure...the cure for the virius she had created and was naturally immuned.]]

* TheGhost: The ship has more than one Pathfinder in stasis (due to the low numbers, some species have to double-up), but with the situation as it is, none of them are woken up, just in case.

''Mass Effect: Andromeda Annihilation'' is the third prequel novel to the game ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'', set before the human Ark Hyperion arrives in Andromeda.

The novel's plot chronicles the journey of the Ark ''Keelah Si'yah'' as it carries 20,000 drell, elcor, hanar, volus, batarian, and quarian colonists to Andromeda. The main characters are the "Sleepwalker" teams; members of each race who are awakened if a problem occurs during the journey to Andromeda. A pathogen is discovered aboard the ark after many drell are found dead in their cryo pods. As the pathogen jumps species, the ship's systems begin to fail, making it clear this was no accident.