This was actually the second big Andro thing me and my players did. The big thing here was that the Andro's had to be present, but up until the ISC, have no major impact on things. (and the ISC impact is obviously, no Andro invasion means that the ISC Pacification ends somewhat differently.) So if you wanted Andro's who aren't going to be super vital to the campaign, but that you can play as non hostiles, here you go. (note that like the other one, this is likely to niche for any publishing interest).

Miners


Although superficially similar to the Jindarians, the Miners are a society that even after hundreds of years of contact, remain mysterious. Nobody knows how many there are, for the simple reason that many miner hives remain silent, hidden deep within airless moons and asteroids, many of them in interstellar space.

However, these groups occasionally awaken and start conducing mining operations. Although they historically utilized small ships, over the course of recent history the Miners have started to deploy larger ships and more advanced, likely in response to the growing size and power of neighboring nations. Every group operates independently of others, although there have been few recorded cases of conflict between Miners.

Unlike the Jindarians, the Miners do not use most of their bounty for themselves. The Miners seek out “weak spaces,” where it is possible to establish a wormhole to some other dimension. They then transfer their bounty into that wormhole, until it can no longer be maintained. Scientists have determined that the nature of these wormholes indicates that they are both one-way, and cannot be used to transfer finished materials, merely raw organic and inorganic supplies. Anything more complex would almost certainly be destroyed by the wormhole, and it does not appear to be possible to create a wormhole from the other direction, wherever that is.

Once the wormhole collapses, the miners will usually seek out other regions, attempting to find another location where they can establish a wormhole link. A few miner groups seem to abandon their mission, and explore and interact with other cultures—although given that nobody knows precisely why miners work to provide their unknown partners with resources, it is possible that such groups are merely on a very extended vacation.

Although nobody has ever seen a Miner, there are a few theories about them. Their smaller ships, sleds, mobile platforms, and somewhat later, fighters and PFs, are treated as completely disposable, leading to the belief that these units are not actually crewed. Larger ships may be another matter, and given the way they refer to themselves as “I”, most scientists believe that miner ships are in fact controlled by a single, or small number of entities, although what type of entity they are remains a matter for some debate. Theories range from organic lifeforms that wear their ships like a hermit crab, to energy lifeforms, to (a popular theory in spacer bars) ghosts of long-dead civilizations.

It is known that displacement device equipped ships, especially motherships, appear to be the leaders of the miners. Beyond that, their social structure is impossible to discern. While the miners are quite capable of communicating with other groups, and are sometimes quite chatty, they remain silent on their own internal organization, culture and purpose.

For the most part, Miners seem to make good neighbors. Unlike the Jindarians, so long as local forces stay out of their way, they generally stay out of theirs. However, this does not mean that they will tolerate poaching. Miner groups become especially touchy when a wormhole has been established and will pre-emptively engage ships that appear to be getting too close to the wormhole. Unfortunately, in many cases the ships were actually unaware that they were threatening a Miner wormhole.

Exploring fleets, those that are not currently engaged in mining operations, are mostly curious about their surroundings, although they engage space monsters whenever they see them, evidently seeing them as a threat. In several cases, Miner ships have intervened to assist local systems against these enemies, something that has left some governments favorably inclined to them.

Most Miners also attack the Jindarians on sight, as do the Jindarians, speaking to a long-running feud. Finding the reason why has been difficult, but the few Jindarians willing to speak of it, claim that the Miners have intruded on their domains for much of their recorded history. Regardless for the reason, the arrival of a Jindarian caravan in a region claimed by a Miner flotilla will almost always lead to escalating conflict until one side is destroyed or moves on. These conflicts can often expand to cause issues for the surrounding powers.

Attempts to ally with the Miners ran aground on the fact that every Miner flotilla is an independent group, making it impossible to use them as a large force. Furthermore, they consider their activities in mining and transferring goods to their mysterious destination a priority. In general, only flotillas that are not currently involved in mining activities are “for hire.” Such negotiations, when successful, generally include a long list of what the miners will and will not do, as well as terms of payment, which can range from refined materials to information. Some payments seem odd, such as the time in Y177 when the Federation ended up shipping sixty metric tons of plush toys to a Miner flotilla in order to hire it to conduct raids on the Romulan Empire.

A few “orphaned” Miner ships existed, mostly survivors of the destruction of their flotilla. While some of these ships did join up with other flotillas, others became “Ronin” ships, serving purely as mercenaries or otherwise pursuing their own interests. While few of these ships had long careers, they did have exiting lives, especially for those ships that joined the Orions. Smaller satellite ships seldom lasted very long, as they did not have the extensive repair and cargo facilities their larger ships did.

Miner ships were a mixture of large motherships and satellite ships, along with transportable bases and construction facilities. Although some fixed facilities were produced, most notably the wormhole generators, the majority of miner systems were designed for quick relocation.

Although miner flotillas could have as many as 20 displacement device equipped ships within them, the nature of the displacement device ensured that only two ships of any given flotilla could appear in a given area at the same time. This is not always comforting to a colony world confronted by a pair of dominators. It was generally accepted that the reason for the limited size of most flotillas was due to the danger of multiple displacement device equipped ships getting in each others way.


Flotilla composition:

While most popular media focused on the Miner’s powerful warships, the fact is that the majority of motherships were either transport craft or cargo ships. The Miners, after all, were, ah, dedicated to mining, not conquest. A flotilla of eight motherships might only have two dedicated warships, in addition to the satellite ships. Miners operating in dangerous areas might have more dedicated warships, but in those cases, most ships would carry at least one mining sled, in order to take advantage of unexpected finds. The existence of hanger bay modules allowed any motherships to take on a variety of different roles, allowing the Miners to forgo the wide range of ship classes most groups were forced to use.


Other Powers and the Miners:


Most intersteller nations focused on keeping the miners from intruding into sensitive regions, such as core worlds, areas near starbases or other facilities, or sensitive frontiers. Fortunately, because of the Miners nature, many nations were able to adopt a policy of mutual toleration. The fact that trying to destroy a Miner flotilla could cripple forces usually needed elsewhere was also a factor in this toleration.


Tholians: The Tholians were an exception and any Miner flotilla detected in their space could expect an attack. The Tholian web was an effective counter to the displacement device, especially after cast web became available. Because of this, most Miner flotillas either avoided Tholian space or quickly “snuck in” to take advantage of valuable deposits.


The Federation: The Federation did not permit miner flotillas to approach major worlds, although individual cargo ships seeking to trade were a different matter. With the advantage of a large economy, and a crying need for ships, the Federation did hire some Miner flotillas and Ronin ships to patrol less vital regions of space.


The Klingon Empire: The Klingons were less tolerant of Miners than the Federation, but especially as the General War wore on, had less ability to drive them from their space. Tracking and dealing with the Miners was a duty eventually given to the ISS, in addition to everything else the ISS had to handle. The ISS was not pleased, and started “charging” Miner flotillas a fee for operating in Klingon space, a fee which nearly made up for the extra work the ISS had to put in (and ultimately was more cost effective than attempting to drive them out).


Hydrans: The Hydrans may have interacted with the Miners in the Old Colonies, obtaining the raw materials needed for their build up and eventual return. Other than that and the occasional hiring of mercenaries, the Hydrans had little to do with the Miners.


Kzinti:

The Kzinti often engaged Miner groups, being almost as hostile to them as the Tholians were. This backfired when the Usurper was able to convince at least two Miner ships to join in the Civil War on his side.


Romulans:


The Romulans had great difficulties dealing with the Miners, first as a sublight species and then, a species that had to face the fact that displacement armed ships were difficult to deal with using plasma torpedoes, especially after the miners developed their own torpedo pods. Lastly, the growing disaster of the General War and later Romulan Civil War left the Romulans unwilling to provoke another enemy. The most common enemy—and employer—for the Miners were the great houses.


Gorn: As a somewhat territorial species, the Gorn tried to keep Miner flotillas out of their space, but this proved more or less unsuccessful. Attempts to hire Miners ran aground on the parsimonious nature of the Gorn government. However, the Gorn did find the Miner hostility to the Jindarians to be useful, especially as they drove several Caravans out of Gorn space. Gorn forces would often keep such conflicts under observation, hoping to catch a Jindarian caravan attempting to escape from the region.


ISC: The ISC was perhaps the most friendly of the various governments to the Miners, especially during the pacification. Many miner flotillas relocated to the wider neutral zones and the ISC tolerated their presence and operations, purchasing their excess goods to support the Pacification. A number of Miner flotillas cooperated with the ISC, both directly and by providing resources. During the Collapse of the Pacification, several ISC cantons survived with the aid of allied Miner flotillas or Ronin ships.


WYN: No Miner flotilla or ship ever entered the WYN star cluster. However, the WYN did managed to secure the services of some Miner ships for missions outside the cluster. In most cases, these involved the transfer of machine tools or other items the WYN could not produce for themselves. Given that most neighboring powers had no interest in seeing the WYN building up any kind of industrial capability, some of these missions proved to be quite exciting…


The Orions:


Given the decentralized nature of the Orion cartel system, it is unsurprising that their relationship with the Miners ran the gamut. On the one hand, Miner extraction sites, especially those with only a few gunsleds for security, were often a good way for an Orion captain to secure a good deal of valuable refined materials, something the Miners did not appreciate. Equally, the Orions with their networks could often find both raw materials and items that interested some Miners, and a few Miners entered into mutually beneficial relationships with the Orions , who helped provide them with security in return for the occasional muscle.


Hanger Modules:


Every Miner Mothership was, in part, customizable, merely by swapping out a module. For this reason, the Miners created a wide range of modules, most of them medium sized, which could quickly allow a ship to take on an entirely new mission.


Support Module:


Support modules, including the C3A Plasma and Fighter Modules, are only active when they are within a Mothership. Modules that are free floating in space are inactive, with all their systems counted as cargo. Save as noted in a specific scenario, a mothership cannot take a support module on board and activate it within the confines of a scenario.



Multi-mission module.

Including extra lab, repair, and cargo facilities, the multi-mission module allowed any Mothership to act as a research vessel, tend to itself and its satellite ships, or simply enjoy a longer range. This was the most common non-cargo module to be used by the Miners.


Fabrication Module:


The fabrication module was capable of building new energy modules, fighters, SSUs, PFs and even satellite ships. Most commonly found on cargo vessels, the Fabrication module required a free hanger space to store the equipment it was building, as well as extensive cargo facilities. In general, it was more efficient to build new ships at a dedicated base, but this allowed flotillas to replace their losses even when on the move.


New Bases:


Construction Base:


The only source of size class 2 and 3 hulls, the construction base was made up of two core modules and four base modules. While these bases could be quickly dismantled, that would mean abandoning whatever craft were under construction at the time. Motherships would be constructed under the base, and only one size class 2 or 3 hull could be built at a time. Satellite ships and other small components could be built on the upper side of the station, with room for two ships at any given time.

Because of the investment of time and resources they represented, these stations were only established in secure regions, and always had a number of escorts.


New ships:


Survey Sled:


While all Miner ships had some degree of research capability, the survey sled was used for long-term study of planets and regions that did not merit a full presence. Usually teamed with a number of other sleds, the survey sled would continue its work until the region had been completely surveyed, or a greater commitment of resources was deemed necessary. One job that the survey sled commonly engaged in was leading groups of sleds and SSUs to look for hiding Jindarian craft. This allowed valuable Miner ships to stand off and wait and see, rather than risking a point blank strike in an asteroid belt. Needless to say, this tactic was costly for the sleds.


Windjammer


The largest cargo transport of the miners, the Windjammer was based on the Dominator hull, carrying a large amount of cargo, inbuilt repair facilities, and the largest hanger space of any Miner ship, capable of carrying no less than 12 medium ships, although most of those spaces were taken up by cargo pods. Not all flotillas had a windjammer, possibly because of worries that such a large ship might become a target, given its light armament.

Some Windjammers were used to construct satellite ships with the use of fabrication modules. Others were known to set up entire mining operations literally overnight. Most flotillas ensured that these ships were always well escorted.

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Thursday, December 23, 2021 - 09:34 pm: Edit

Interesting.
I notice you missed the Lyrans, LDR, and Vudar.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Friday, December 24, 2021 - 09:09 pm: Edit

Oops. You saw nothing...

The LDR:

The LDR had little to do with the miners. A few flotillas passed through LDR space, but the neutral nation only hired a few Miners, in most cases to assist with building their infrastructure. The LDR saw them as neither serious allies nor serious enemies, and there was some concern that hiring them might turn the LDR into a serious enough threat for the Lyran King to take action, or worse, make the LDR dependent on their new “allies.”

Vudar:

As with most things, the question of how the Miners interacted with the Vudar depended on how the Vudar interacted with the Klingons. Rumors that at least one militant Miner unit had joined up with the Vudar, lending the support of a Dominator to their quest for freedom, clashed with rumors that the “dominator” was simply a windjammer class cargo ship that had assisted in providing the Vudar with secure cargo transport.

One issue that was clear, however, was that the nature of much of the local “weather” tended to lead to many miners giving Vudar space a wide berth, espeically the regions that were plagued with ion storms. This also made the Vudar one of the most dangerous enemies to the Miners, as their fixed bases were protected by Ion Storm Generators.

The Lyrans:

The famously disunited Lyran Empire found themselves often dealing with the Minters. The King kept close watch on any nobles, especially duke and counts, who appeared to be too interested in building closer ties with the miners. Like many empires, the Lyrans would occasionally seek Miner mercenaries, but as usual, such mercenary units would not be trusted with any serious front.

However, the Far Stars Duchy has at least one flotilla on a long term contract, providing logistics support to Lyran exploration efforts. While most of the ships are cargo transports (save for satellite security ships), Federation intelligence believes that the flotilla includes at least one Intruder, and two conquerer class warships.

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, December 25, 2021 - 12:12 pm: Edit

I like your ideas, I think the Migrating Andros work better for F&E, and the Miner Andros work better for PD, both work equally well for SFB. As some of the competing theories for what the Andros were, before it was figured out, they work well.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Saturday, December 25, 2021 - 12:19 pm: Edit

Interesting.

Wonder how the "minor" races reacted. And what this meant for the Xorks.