No matter how many times we try to send his calls to voicemail, or ask Jacob to tell him that we aren't here, we have to talk to The Illusive Man. When I realized that conversating with him would immediately send us on the next mission, I reloaded and tried to keep going somewhere else, but the game forces your hand. Fine. 
 
The Man tells us that there's a Collector Ship disabled in space, and we have a chance to get there and collect some info before anyone else gets there. Sounds kinda unwise, seeing as what happened last time I encountered a Collector ship in space, but this is what we do, so we walk into a likely horribly dangerous situation. Shepard's insurance company probably has no idea what do with him, he has to have a hell of a deductible. 
 
- 
 
The Collector ship is an almost total duplicate of the crashed-Geth ship base from the Overlord DLC, in set-up and tone. The whole thing is totally dark and empty as we roll in, and our squadmates, Miranda and Thane, investigate creepy stuff with us all the way through, as we look for the main computer. Tension mounts as there are no enemies, and just as in the Overlord scenario, you just know things are going to go real, real bad on your way out. I happened to recall, unfortunately, that this running battle will be quite a bit longer, and has some significantly rougher spots in it. I can't wait.
 
Along the way, we find evidence that the Collectors are enslaved and extensively modified Protheans, and that the Reapers are definitely using them as agents. We also find out that in a low atmosphere environment, that Thane puts on a totally terrifying black facemask with red eyes, which served to surprise me twice during the mission into thinking I was being jumped by husks or abominations. It's a nice thing that friendly-fire isn't on, or Thane would have died a lot quicker than from his medical condition. 
 
Sh*t really jumps off when we hit the switch on the computer, or whatever EDI needs access to - a couple of floating platforms fly up to the one we are standing on, and they are full of collectors, and a couple of Scions. 
 
I've read thread on the boards here, lamenting that this part of the game is broken and impossible, and that Bioware should be firebombed, etc. The issues most have are familiar to those who have been following some of my difficulties in this playthrough (those problems which haven't be caused by my being stupid and lousy): The damage dealt by enemies being so ruthless that when the Scions use their shockwave, it knocks Shepard out of cover, and the recovery takes long enough that you're a dead man, or that the Squad AI gets itself pinned between the Collectors and the Scions, or takes terrible cover, and quickly get themselves killed. 
 
I sympathize, but had no such issues. I cruised through this, getting myself in good cover, right in the deepest part of the "V" of the half-wall cover on my platform, and ordering my squadmates to positions on my right, away from the heaviest of the action. From here, we went heavy after the collectors, with Warp, Reave, and incendiary ammo, picking off the regular guys as quickly as possible, and letting Harbinger just yell at us, and throw black-hole makers into the wall in front of us. 
 
The Scions, either since we didn't move forward, or didn't attack them, just wander back and forth a bit, and the shockwaves don't hit myself or my allies at full strength, not knocking us significantly out of cover during the heat of the main firefight, now murdering my squaddies. Maybe I got lucky, and glitched through, but I'll take it. 
 
The rest of the mission rolls on pretty well, with a lot of slow, cover-base encounters, which go well, although every once and a while Miranda or Thane get picked off, and I have to kill the rest of the enemies along with my other teammate, or by myself, since I suspect I'll need the medi-gels soon enough. There are only a few hiccups, in which I get killed, and those are really in the spots where Husks/Abominations show up - we still don't have the technique for dealing with rushing melee enemies well - in one hallway at the very end of the level, Miranda and Thane got curb-stomped to death by Husks before we really knew what was up. A qhole bunch just flowed up at us, and they were dead real quick, while I retreated, throwing Reave and Cryo-ammo out as much as possible. I will extoll the value of the cryo-ammo shortly, but I began to really appreciate it here. 
 
The other big battle, which comes maybe halfway out of the ship, is an encounter in a large room with a few Husks, a few Collectors, and another Praetorian. I hated, hated, hated, this part on my Normal difficulty run, and have been dreading it on this run. I either get overwhelmed trying to deal with the Husks and get thrashed by the Praetorian, or I can't deal enough damage to the Praetorian, and it gets a clear lane at me to laser-beam me to death. It didn't go well the first few times through here, either, especially with the Husks, who I am excited to not see for a good while after this. 
 
After 5 or so tries, I took a break, then got back at it, and pulled off a narrow victory on my third try. I would impart a strategy if I had one, but, I didn't really put one together: I used my squadmates to help with the Husks and Collectors, while I rained down some fire on the Praetorian from the ramp that leads down to the room, drawing it toward me - and then, when the regular enemies were gone, I just ran and ran and hid and tried to throw some little bit of fire toward it as often as possible. It took a long damn time as my teammates whittled it down, and I basically looked for anything to put between me and this horrible death-engine. As with the Scions before, I will take lucky if I can get it. 
 
 - 
 
We barley escape the awakening Collector ship, and after being appropriately pissed at the Illusive man for sending us into another obvious trap, we are back to being able to do our own thing. Boy do I have plans. I have some more business on Illium, a couple favors to try to please a couple of my favorite ladies, and then a wild ride after a dark force in the galaxy. Fun stuff ahead. 
  
- Nick

No matter how many times we try to send his calls to voicemail, or ask Jacob to tell him that we aren't here, we have to talk to The Illusive Man. When I realized that conversating with him would immediately send us on the next mission, I reloaded and tried to keep going somewhere else, but the game forces your hand. Fine. 
 
The Man tells us that there's a Collector Ship disabled in space, and we have a chance to get there and collect some info before anyone else gets there. Sounds kinda unwise, seeing as what happened last time I encountered a Collector ship in space, but this is what we do, so we walk into a likely horribly dangerous situation. Shepard's insurance company probably has no idea what do with him, he has to have a hell of a deductible. 
 
- 
 
The Collector ship is an almost total duplicate of the crashed-Geth ship base from the Overlord DLC, in set-up and tone. The whole thing is totally dark and empty as we roll in, and our squadmates, Miranda and Thane, investigate creepy stuff with us all the way through, as we look for the main computer. Tension mounts as there are no enemies, and just as in the Overlord scenario, you just know things are going to go real, real bad on your way out. I happened to recall, unfortunately, that this running battle will be quite a bit longer, and has some significantly rougher spots in it. I can't wait.
 
Along the way, we find evidence that the Collectors are enslaved and extensively modified Protheans, and that the Reapers are definitely using them as agents. We also find out that in a low atmosphere environment, that Thane puts on a totally terrifying black facemask with red eyes, which served to surprise me twice during the mission into thinking I was being jumped by husks or abominations. It's a nice thing that friendly-fire isn't on, or Thane would have died a lot quicker than from his medical condition. 
 
Sh*t really jumps off when we hit the switch on the computer, or whatever EDI needs access to - a couple of floating platforms fly up to the one we are standing on, and they are full of collectors, and a couple of Scions. 
 
I've read thread on the boards here, lamenting that this part of the game is broken and impossible, and that Bioware should be firebombed, etc. The issues most have are familiar to those who have been following some of my difficulties in this playthrough (those problems which haven't be caused by my being stupid and lousy): The damage dealt by enemies being so ruthless that when the Scions use their shockwave, it knocks Shepard out of cover, and the recovery takes long enough that you're a dead man, or that the Squad AI gets itself pinned between the Collectors and the Scions, or takes terrible cover, and quickly get themselves killed. 
 
I sympathize, but had no such issues. I cruised through this, getting myself in good cover, right in the deepest part of the "V" of the half-wall cover on my platform, and ordering my squadmates to positions on my right, away from the heaviest of the action. From here, we went heavy after the collectors, with Warp, Reave, and incendiary ammo, picking off the regular guys as quickly as possible, and letting Harbinger just yell at us, and throw black-hole makers into the wall in front of us. 
 
The Scions, either since we didn't move forward, or didn't attack them, just wander back and forth a bit, and the shockwaves don't hit myself or my allies at full strength, not knocking us significantly out of cover during the heat of the main firefight, now murdering my squaddies. Maybe I got lucky, and glitched through, but I'll take it. 
 
The rest of the mission rolls on pretty well, with a lot of slow, cover-base encounters, which go well, although every once and a while Miranda or Thane get picked off, and I have to kill the rest of the enemies along with my other teammate, or by myself, since I suspect I'll need the medi-gels soon enough. There are only a few hiccups, in which I get killed, and those are really in the spots where Husks/Abominations show up - we still don't have the technique for dealing with rushing melee enemies well - in one hallway at the very end of the level, Miranda and Thane got curb-stomped to death by Husks before we really knew what was up. A qhole bunch just flowed up at us, and they were dead real quick, while I retreated, throwing Reave and Cryo-ammo out as much as possible. I will extoll the value of the cryo-ammo shortly, but I began to really appreciate it here. 
 
The other big battle, which comes maybe halfway out of the ship, is an encounter in a large room with a few Husks, a few Collectors, and another Praetorian. I hated, hated, hated, this part on my Normal difficulty run, and have been dreading it on this run. I either get overwhelmed trying to deal with the Husks and get thrashed by the Praetorian, or I can't deal enough damage to the Praetorian, and it gets a clear lane at me to laser-beam me to death. It didn't go well the first few times through here, either, especially with the Husks, who I am excited to not see for a good while after this. 
 
After 5 or so tries, I took a break, then got back at it, and pulled off a narrow victory on my third try. I would impart a strategy if I had one, but, I didn't really put one together: I used my squadmates to help with the Husks and Collectors, while I rained down some fire on the Praetorian from the ramp that leads down to the room, drawing it toward me - and then, when the regular enemies were gone, I just ran and ran and hid and tried to throw some little bit of fire toward it as often as possible. It took a long damn time as my teammates whittled it down, and I basically looked for anything to put between me and this horrible death-engine. As with the Scions before, I will take lucky if I can get it. 
 
 - 
 
We barley escape the awakening Collector ship, and after being appropriately pissed at the Illusive man for sending us into another obvious trap, we are back to being able to do our own thing. Boy do I have plans. I have some more business on Illium, a couple favors to try to please a couple of my favorite ladies, and then a wild ride after a dark force in the galaxy. Fun stuff ahead. 
  
- Nick