[whoareyou]

The Graphic Novel Prequel explains the weapons on board the mining ship. After Romulan is destroyed Nero and his crew run into a group of renegade romulans who have stolen Borg tech and they use the Borg tech to pimp Nero's ride. Also in the prequel he is allowed on board the Enterprise (under Captain Data) and has access to the computers and studies the history of the Federation, particular one James T. Kirk, so I assume that's how he knew Kirk's dad was on board that ship.