Collector Cruiser

The Collector Cruiser is a massive vessel capable of carrying large numbers of Collectors, Husks, Abominations, Scions, Praetorians and Seeker swarms along with the equivalent of an entire human colony's population. The Collector Cruiser seen in Mass Effect 2 is currently the only known Collector ship.

Construction and Armaments
The ship is vast in size, easily dwarfing both the original Normandy and her larger successor. As is typical of Collector technology and design, the vessel is a hybrid of organic protrusions with a metallic superstructure. The interior consists of cave-like hallways, similar to an insect hive, and vast open areas traversed by floating hexagonal platforms. Despite its huge size this ship is capable of landing on the surface of a planet (resting vertically) although it requires an enormous rocket engine to propel it back into space.

The cruiser is armed with a large forward-firing particle beam weapon, capable of firing multiple shots in quick succession or a single devastating blast. The weapon is powerful and accurate enough to cripple an Alliance Navy frigate in only a few shots. It also appears to be equipped with sensors capable of detecting a vessel with a heat retaining stealth system (such as the Normandy). Details of this capability are never revealed. The Collector ship is equipped with an Identify Friend/Foe (IFF) system that allows it to traverse the Omega 4 Relay without harm.

Although it can endure the atmospheric heat of reentry to land on planets, the Collector cruiser's hull is vulnerable to sustained bombardment from Alliance anti-aircraft GARDIAN turrets. This may also be a result of the cruiser being forced to lower any kinetic barriers in order to land (compare to the destruction of the SSV Iwo Jima).

Mass Effect 2
The Collectors used this ship to abduct the inhabitants of numerous human colonies. They would approach quietly, disabling communications and sensors, land on a planet and unleash massive Seeker swarms to paralyze the colonists. Collector Drones would then gather up the colonists, store them in pupae-like pods and transport them onto the cruiser, which would then use its powerful engine to launch itself back into space.

Commander Shepard first encountered the cruiser when one ambushed the SSV Normandy shortly after the destruction of Sovereign. Initially believed to be a geth warship it was somehow able to detect the Normandy despite its stealth systems. The cruiser demonstrated its incredible firepower and easily disabled the Normandy with several precise blasts before circling around and destroying the crippled ship. While many of the crew evacuated, Shepard, Navigator Pressly, and twenty other crewmen were killed in the attack.

Another cruiser (later revealed as the same one that attacked the Normandy) was used in the Collector assault on Horizon. The resurrected Commander Shepard and the Normandy crew used the colony's defense system to drive off the ship and weakened it. However, the ship had already captured at least half the colony's population, and the ship's afterburners destroyed several buildings and much of the surrounding land during liftoff.

The same cruiser was later found in a distant area of space, apparently deserted after reportedly being disabled by a turian patrol. Shepard's team investigated the dead ship and learned that the Collectors are in fact Protheans, upon analysis of a Collector corpse. Eventually, Shepard's team came into a massive circular room lined with millions of pods, suggesting the Collectors were intending to target Earth. However, when the team makes it to a command console, the Collectors spring their trap, having falsified the distress signal. Despite fierce resistance the team was able to escape, and were able to gain valuable information from the ship's database, identifying the need for an IFF code to access the Omega 4 Relay.

Later on, having acquired a Reaper IFF from a derelict Reaper, Shepard left in the Normandy shuttle together with the rest of the team, as EDI required most systems be shut down to test the new IFF. The cruiser made a second attack on the Normandy SR-2. This time, the cruiser was able to dock with the Normandy due to a Reaper virus from the IFF which had corrupted the systems aboard and had been transmitting the Normandy's location to the Collectors. Scions, Praetorians and Collector soldiers boarded the Normandy and the entire crew, save Joker, were killed or captured and brought onto the cruiser. After Joker, with EDI's help, escaped with the Normandy, the cruiser presumably headed for the Collector base.

The cruiser was encountered one final time during the assault on the Collector base. The cruiser was deployed to take on the attacking Normandy. Joker piloted the Normandy into a deadly dogfight with the cruiser, which was eventually destroyed. If the Normandy is upgraded with newer weapons it destroys the cruiser at a long range with little difficultly. If not, it is destroyed with the Normandy's standard weapons at point-blank range - but not before managing to severely cripple the Normandy. No matter how the battle goes, the explosion of the cruiser was able to damage the Normandy enough to force it into a crash landing on the surface of the Collector base.