Mass Effect: Ascension Sample Chapter

BioWare's official Mass Effect website has been updated with a downloadable PDF of the fourth chapter from Drew Karpyshyn's upcoming Mass Effect: Ascension novel. A snippet:
Unlike Council space, most aliens here refused to speak the common trade language unless absolutely necessary. An endless cacophony of grunts, squawks, and squeaks assailed his ears as he made his way through the crowds, his automated translator useless in the face of obscure interstellar dialects it wasn't programmed to decipher.

The aliens couldn't even agree on a single name for the station. Each speaker called it something different in his or her native tongue. The unpronounceable asari name loosely translated as (heart of evil,) the turians referred to it as (world without law,) the salarians called it (place of secrets,) and the krogans knew it as (land of opportunity.) For the sake of convenience, the automated translator Pel wore strapped to his belt translated all these terms into the human word (Omega) the absolute end of all things.

As much as he didn't want to be here, he had a job to do. Cerberus had sent him to broker a deal with his contact, and Pel knew better than to cross the Illusive Man. Of course, that hadn't stopped him and his team from taking on a few freelance projects over the past year that his superiors might not approve of. That's why it was so important to do things right: complete his missions as instructed; keep a low profile and don't make a mistake that might draw extra attention to his unauthorized activities.

Unless they already know, Pel thought, wondering if his tail was a Cerberus operative. Maybe the whole mission had been a ploy to get him alone on Omega's streets, where a dead human wouldn't attract any notice.