Collector Cruiser
The insectoid warship of the harvesters
The Collector Cruiser was the only known vessel type used by the Collectors, an immense hybrid of organic growth and metal superstructure. A single cruiser could carry enough troops, creatures, and stasis pods to abduct an entire human colony, and one such ship destroyed the original Normandy in 2183.
The Collector Cruiser was the only known class of vessel fielded by the Collectors, the enigmatic harvesters who served the Reapers from beyond the Omega 4 Relay. It was an enormous ship, easily dwarfing both the original Normandy and her larger successor, and a single cruiser carried enough troops, Reaper creatures, and stasis pods to abduct an entire human colony and still have room to gather more. The Collectors were known to possess several of these ships, two of which were encountered in 2185.
Construction and armament#
The cruisers were vast in size and, as was typical of Collector design, were hybrids of organic protrusions grown over a metallic superstructure. Their interiors consisted of cave-like hallways that recalled an insect hive, along with vast open chambers traversed by floating hexagonal platforms. Despite their bulk the ships could land on a planet's surface, resting upright on end, though lifting off quickly required an enormous thruster engine whose exhaust scorched the ground beneath it.
A cruiser's principal weapon was a large particle beam capable of multi-directional fire, able to loose either a rapid succession of shots or a single devastating blast. Because it was a particle weapon it ignored kinetic barriers, and it was powerful and accurate enough to critically damage an Alliance frigate in only a few shots. The ships also carried sensors able to detect a vessel running a heat-dampening stealth system, and an Identify Friend or Foe system that let them pass through the Omega 4 Relay unharmed. In addition to their forward beam, some cruisers were fitted with eye-shaped point-defense weapons on their lateral sides, which provided covering fire when the ship stood upright during a harvest. For all their power, the cruisers proved no more immune to sustained bombardment than other warships, and concentrated anti-aircraft fire could bring one down.
Role in the abductions#
The Collectors used these ships to carry off the populations of numerous human colonies. A single cruiser would approach a world quietly, disabling its communications and sensors, then land and release massive Seeker Swarms that paralyzed the colonists where they stood. Collector Drones gathered the helpless victims, sealed them in pupa-like pods, and bore them aboard before the ship withdrew. For these departures the cruiser favored a subtle form of propulsion, since the traces left by its rocket engine were never found on any of the abducted worlds, suggesting the Collectors took pains to leave no evidence behind.
History#
Commander Shepard first met a Collector Cruiser when one ambushed the original Normandy in 2183, weeks after the destruction of Sovereign. Mistaken at first for a geth warship, the cruiser detected the stealthed frigate, disabled it with several precise blasts, and circled back to destroy it. Many of the crew escaped, but Shepard, Navigator Pressly, and some twenty others were lost.
The same cruiser took part in the assault on the colony of Horizon, where the resurrected Shepard and the crew of the Normandy SR-2 used the colony's defense system to drive it off, though not before it had carried away roughly a third of the population. The ship was later found apparently derelict in a remote region of space, said to have been disabled by a turian patrol. Investigating the dead vessel, Shepard's team examined a Collector corpse and learned that the Collectors were in truth the remnants of the Protheans, then discovered a chamber lined with countless pods that hinted at a coming strike on Earth. The distress signal proved a trap, but the team escaped with data revealing that an IFF code was needed to cross the Omega 4 Relay. After Shepard obtained such a code from a derelict Reaper, a cruiser attacked the SR-2 a second time, docked with it through a Reaper virus that had corrupted the ship's systems, and boarded it, carrying off nearly the entire crew. During the final assault on the Collector Base, a Collector Cruiser was drawn into a running battle with the Normandy and destroyed, its death throes forcing the crippled frigate into a crash landing.
Frequently asked questions
- What was a Collector Cruiser in Mass Effect?
- A Collector Cruiser was a massive vessel used by the Collectors to carry their forces and abduct entire populations. It could hold large numbers of Collectors, husks, Abominations, Scions, Praetorians, and Seeker Swarms, along with enough stasis pods to capture every human colony in the Terminus Systems and still gather more. It was the only known type of Collector ship.
- How was a Collector Cruiser built and armed?
- Like all Collector technology, the cruiser was a hybrid of organic protrusions and a metallic superstructure, with cave-like halls resembling an insect hive. Its main weapon was a large particle beam capable of firing in multiple directions, ignoring kinetic barriers, and crippling an Alliance frigate in only a few shots. Some cruisers also carried eye-shaped point-defense weapons on their flanks.
- Did a Collector Cruiser destroy the Normandy?
- Yes. In 2183, shortly after the destruction of Sovereign, a Collector Cruiser ambushed the SSV Normandy, detected it despite its stealth systems, and disabled and destroyed it. Many of the crew escaped, but Commander Shepard, Navigator Pressly, and around twenty others were killed in the attack.
- How did the Collectors use their cruisers to abduct colonies?
- A single cruiser would approach a world quietly, disable its communications and sensors, land, and release vast Seeker Swarms to paralyze the colonists. Collector Drones then gathered the victims into pod-like pupae and carried them aboard before the ship departed, often using a subtle form of propulsion that left no trace behind.
Sources
- WikiCollector Cruiser — Mass Effect Wiki entry
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Related entries
Collectors
The Collectors were an enigmatic insectoid race dwelling beyond the Omega 4 Relay, long dismissed as myth. In truth they were the last of the Protheans, genetically rewritten and cybernetically enslaved by the Reapers, who used them to abduct human colonies and build a Human-Reaper.
Normandy SR-2
The Normandy SR-2 was an advanced stealth frigate built as the successor to the original Normandy and served as Commander Shepard's base of operations against the Collectors and, later, the Reapers. Built by Cerberus and later turned over to the Systems Alliance, she became one of the most storied warships of her era.
Omega
Omega was a sprawling space station built in the hollowed husk of an asteroid in the Terminus Systems, a haven for criminals and outcasts ruled by the asari warlord Aria T'Loak. Often called the dark counterpart to the Citadel, it had no central government and changed hands only through violence.
Sovereign
Sovereign was a Reaper that posed as the flagship of the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius. Left behind in the galaxy as the Reapers' vanguard, it spent fifty thousand years waiting to summon its kind from dark space, and in 2183 it launched the assault on the Citadel that ended in its destruction.
Commander Shepard
Commander Shepard was a Systems Alliance N7 marine who became the first human Spectre, exposed the rogue agent Saren Arterius, and led the galaxy's resistance against the Reapers. Shepard's gender, history, and many of the choices that shaped the war were never fixed, and the final fate of the cycle turned on the Commander's own decisions.
Horizon
Horizon was a temperate human colony on the galactic frontier that suffered a devastating Collector raid in 2185 and later became the site of the secret Cerberus husk facility known as Sanctuary.
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Praetorian
The Praetorian was a slow-moving aerial construct fielded by the Collectors, built from dozens of deformed human husks fused into a single armored body. It was armed with twin particle beams and shielded by a regenerating biotic barrier, and it served as one of the deadliest guardians of the Collectors' operations.
SSV Normandy
The SSV Normandy SR-1 was a prototype deep scout frigate of the Systems Alliance, co-developed with the Turian Hierarchy and famed for its experimental stealth systems. She served as Commander Shepard's first command and base of operations before being destroyed by a Collector attack in 2183.
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