When plans for further Mass Effect games were put on hold, fans of the series were disappointed with important points in Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s story that would have been covered by single-player DLC being abruptly left hanging. Recently, Bioware announced the story begun by Andromeda will continue in an upcoming novel, Mass Effect: Annihilation.
Mass Effect: Annihilation tells the story of the Andromeda Initiative’s fifth and final ark, the Keelah Si’yah. Those who played Andromeda will remember the ark took off later than the other four, delayed due to the more demanding needs of its inhabitants. As such, players had only gotten a couple of hints on what could have happened to the ark during Andromeda, and Bioware offered another hint in the brief summary of Annihilation in its announcement post:
Discover the danger aboard the quarian ark in Mass Effect: Annihilation, an upcoming novel from Hugo Award-winning author Catherynne M. Valente.
This official tie-in novel chronicles the journey of the Keelah Si’yah as it carries 20,000 drell, elcor, batarian, and quarian colonists 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 is no accident.
Before Andromeda‘s release, a trilogy of Mass Effect novels had already been announced – the other two being Nexus Uprising, which came out in March, and Initiation, which is scheduled to release in November. Originally, Annihilation was meant to be the second book in the trilogy; however, it was delayed after plans for the series were put on ice.
Mass Effect: Annihilation is now slated for release in the US, Canada, and the UK on June 26th, 2018.