My sister has gone into hard labour. I am quickly posting what I have so far and some of it is unedited (like this write up), though I have tried to quickly scan the ship I am submitting for errors (I did find one). If this needs editing I will do it at some point in the future.
Hector Class Mining Vessel
In order to understand the current incarnation of the Hector Class ship (in all its many forms), you must first understand its initial, 3rd Imperium design. Like many ships of the 3rd Imperium, the Hector was purpose-built and never intended to fill more roles then as a mining vessel with defence capabilities. (This isn't to say that it was never used in multiple roles, it was just not designed for them.)
The 3I (3rd Imperium) Hector was one of thirteen vessels that operated as a whole. Twelve were Hector class and the third, a large ore processor with jump capabilities, was titled a Kaston Class ship. The Kaston Class ship could attach the twelve Hector Class vessels for manoeuvring purposes (the Kaston had no manoeuvre drives of its own) and then make a jump to an asteroid field (so the Hector had no need for jump drives). Once at the asteroid field, the 12 Hector's would begin the process of retrieving asteroids for the Kaston to process. The processed ores would then fill up the cargo hold of a Hercules Class Bulk Carrier (or similar cargo vessel) to be shipped back to the world sponsoring the expedition, while the rest of the asteroid (mostly ice) would be refined for fuel to continue the mining process.
The Hector has no use for jump engines, fuel refinement (done on the Kaston), or even staterooms (they were on the Kaston as well). It had limited fuel endurance (not intended to operate for more then 10 hours at a time anyway), no contra-grav capabilities (it landed mostly on asteroids, anyway) and it's crew of twelve consisted of mostly engineers (8 of the twelve) who doubled as gunners should the MFD ever go off-line. What the Hector did have in spades was thrust. Its engines were designed to be able to provide 24,000 tonnes of thrust.
Historical Note:
Initially the Hector was designed with computers which would limit the amount of thrust available to 3Gs, however cleaver engineers found ways around this with disastrous results as the internal structure was not, initially designed to accommodate the force. The Hector was upgraded with proper internal structure and the max G limitation was removed, but not often used due to the fuel limitations of the vessel.
Once the Hectors reached the asteroid field they would deploy custom-built space bots to wrap the rock (or many smaller rocks) in an Asteroid Containment Tarp (ACT), tow the minerals a little ways and then 'slingshot' them towards the processor where they would be retrieved (by another Hector crewed with a relief crew as this would be the mining crews time off) and then processed. The space bots were fire-and-forget robots programmed to both wrap the asteroid(s) in the ACT while scanning them for mineral content. This information was then relayed back to the Hector and sent on to the Kaston.
Historical Note:
The ACT was an armoured cloth-like material was often miss-pronounced 'axe' which lead to the phrase "to axe an asteroid" within the mining community.
The Hector was also equipped with three turrets, three barbets, and three fifty ton bays. The turrets and barbets were to house weapons, the space bots, and the towing lines. The 50 tonne bays contained a lab to analyze samples, repair facilities for the space bots, and the ACTs, which were large enough to wrap up 18,000 m3 of material.
The fusion plant had enough power to power the ship at 6G's and still keep everything running, except weapons. In order to fire the weapons the ship had to reduce its thrust. This was rarely an issue as few raiders had enough firepower to take on twelve Hectors. This does not mean that combat didn't occur.
Historical Note:
One tactic employed by crews piloting Hector Class ships was to first retrieve an asteroid that was at least four times the size of the ship and tow it towards the combat zone. They would then pull the asteroid in close and use their thrust to alternate the direction of the rotation in random patterns, passing through the combat zone partly protected by the rock but rotating around often enough to get off several shots. It was an effective tactic against pirates who, before the Hector Manoeuvre was commonly known, occasionally assumed that the Hectors were just hurtling the asteroids at them.
The Collapse
Neither the Hector, nor the Kaston survived through the collapse very well as they tended to stay constantly networked passing mineral data back and forth and giving instructions to the space bots. To top it off, most infected Hectors appear to have first targeted the Kaston for destruction before suiciding themselves.