https://fractalsoftworks.com/2011/10/22/lore-spotlight-factions-and-worlds/
To recall some old text:
Secret tech-mining operations run by the Corporation can be found in the farthest reaches of the Sector.
Might we see outside the core worlds some tech-mining fleets from factions?
Itd be really cool if you could find secret faction-owned markets (outposts, I suppose they'd be called) out in the frontier that you can't see until after you survey a planet, that have a single industry & no starport (the latter of which is what triggers it being hidden) & like ^2 or 3 population, that bc it has like 0 accessibility has to be resupplied by a small faction-owned smuggler fleet that disguises itself as an independent smuggler the way a pirate fleet can disguise itself as an independant fleet, until after it gets __ distance from the center of the sector core in hyperspace then it runs as its own faction with its transponder off to the market to fill its stockpile with goods to keep its stability up & ferries back to the sector core the goods that outpost produced, goes into "avoiding contact with ___" mode any time a fleet gets near it while in hyperspace & if it detects another fleet in the system the outpost is in it goes & sits on a hyperspace exit like a patrol or ambush does, if it gets approached whiled doing so it flees the system to go hide in another nearby system for a while before coming back & trying again. & if it gets discovered (at survey it rolls your fleet's sensor profile x the inverse of your reputation with that faction, or if you bother a smuggler fleet in-system too much, or if you raid it too much) they send a large undisguised relief fleet to the outpost to abandon it & return with all the people & supplies & products that it had
itd be really cool to find a secret mining outpost on a really high-class mining-rich planet, or a tech mine sitting full of techmine stuff if its been a while since it's been resupplied, or even a secret fuel producing station to challenge the diktat's fuel monopoly out where it wont find it, or even a pirate or independent light industry producing drugs, or even just a simple farming world where refugees from a faction fled to to live a peaceful life (iirc these would be called enclaves)
also @alex, a really good feature to go with the ability to reverse engineer ships using techmining would be it having a(?) blueprint as the input required for it, so theres a use for blueprints you dont want & duplicates, instead of just selling them. Also puts a natural barrier to reverse engineering so u cant race to ur first colony, build a techmine then get whatever ships u want immediately without ever needing to go explore or raid to do so. Circles the mechanic back around to either exploration or raiding, and thus a lot more combat just to get spare blueprints to use, on top of the combat to get the ships u want. Also justifies why everybody isnt doing it; most ships worth the effort of using up a blueprint for wouldnt be worth the effort of using the blueprints the faction is already using, especially when the faction has developed a fleet doctrine around the ships it already has. The Luddic church wouldnt want to use the mudskipper to get a paragon since it already has capital ships and its economy actually needs a shuttle, whereas the player might not have such compunctions