The Bio Collective is not one species and not a coat of tissue on a machine. It is a swarm of living things that decided to be an empire together: plant-creatures, fungal lords, chitin warriors, and machines that were grown instead of built. Nothing they use is manufactured in the Combine sense. Ships are grown. Weapons are bred. Armor is skin that has already been hurt once and learned.
A Collective ship is alive in the plain way. It heals. It feeds. Its shield is a membrane that thickens where it is struck. Its guns throw living payloads that keep working after they land.
The captains come in more shapes than a human census has words for. Broodmothers. Molt-princes. Bodies that speak as a chorus. The polite ones regard an unmodified human with professional interest. The rest regard one as material.
Damage a Bio ship and the hull starts to close while you are still firing. It is alive. Treat it that way.