Pinpricks of light within the swarm signified smaller armaments detonating, and very occasionally Antoinette saw the hard red or green line of a laser precursor beam, caught in outgassing air or propellant from one or other of the ships. Absently cursing her mind's ability to focus on the most trivial of things at the wrong time, she realized that this was a detail they always got wrong in the holo-dramas, where laser beams were invisible, the sinister element of invisibility adding to the drama. But a real close-range space battle was a far messier affair, with gas clouds and chaff shards erupting all over the place, ready to reflect and disperse any beam weapon.
From Redemption Ark, by Alastair Reynolds, p. 648.
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