The cannon slid in and out through tubes fitted with telescopic joints, which rotated in gimbals, so that they could be worked without allowing air to escape, and the muzzle of the gun was closed by a slide while the shot was introduced at the breech. The torpedoes were worked from torpedo-tubes in the same manner. The cannon varied in size from 200 tons to 10-pounders, the armament of each ship being selected according to the duties which it was expected to perform in an engagement. Besides the holes for the cannon, the hull was pierced in many places by other holes, which were filled up with the transparent metal Lumium, so that the sailors could see what was taking place outside...
...Besides the powerful armament of cannon and torpedoes with which the vessels were provided, each had a powerful apparatus for radiating a force which would annihilate the attraction of cohesion wherever it happened to strike, and with another apparatus which would send destructive waves of the force Ednogen, that could kill any human beings that they might impinge upon. These awful engines of destruction would have been enough, but there was yet another that could paralyze the motor-power of an approaching vessel, and thus leave it helpless and useless. To counter-act the influence of any such engines that the enemy might possess, there were receivers that could annihilate these forces should they impinge upon them. The ether of space and a kind of matter that could be made to radiate in elliptical waves were the basis of these terrible forces that were about to be wielded by the two great races for the destruction of one another...
The Struggle For Empire - Robert William Cole
Eat your heart out, Honor Harrington... 
