The main weapons system is based on a volatile cocktail of exotic matter that discharged and then ignited outside the ship. Once the pellet of exotic compounds is ignited it it burn much of itself away as it accelerates to light-speed. What remains becomes unstable as its mass increases. At some point it will become so unstable it will explode. This weapon has a range of about twenty-five hundred kilometers. If you and your ship are within proximity of this charge when it detonates your world gets rocked. If the charge hits you before it detonates your world gets rocked. If you're about fifteen or twenty kilometers away you get a little cooked, but your okay. If the charge hits you within, say two hundred kilometers or less you'll take some punishment but you should be good--unless your enemy rains more charges on you. At some point then you go up in (figurative) flames.
The farther away your enemy is, but still within that twenty-five hundred klick window, the harder you're going to get hit. The trick is to hit your opponent with him as far away as you can, but still within twenty-five hundred kilometers. That's the art of this type of space warfare.
What is the exotic matter made of? Where can you get it? I haven't a clue. My civilization has engineering techniques that cross the branes of different universes--but how it's done...if I knew that I'd be writing my acceptance speech for the Noble. The term I used to describe this project is "space opera", and I make no pretense of being the next Einstein.