[Taera]

How do mines work? pretty simple. It is all simple and realistic in my opinion.

Mines are tiny. Dont look on the 5kT weight, the mines could be as big as football ball. it doesnt matter realy, but their size is completely indetectable for any and all ship scanners. Though you can mod them to be detectable.
How do they work? They are randmly distributed between the sector they occupy. Once ships enter they swarm towards the ship and attach themselves to the ship or just flight by, using magnetic detection component included in their special warhead. Once all mines *stop*(come near a ship or stay in place) they explode.
Explosion of single mine triggers a magnetic field which causes mines to attack every remaining ships if aviable. if none left, they just sit where they are.

Mine sweeper simply has specialized energy rays that intercept the mines as they come and destroys them, plus all the tiny meteorites that hit so hard on your personal quarters in the ship when you are asleep....