Sabatine hadn't been an infantry trooper. Her experience had been as a combat pilot, but she had spent enough time defending the bird while loading or unloading troops, or protecting herself after shoot downs, that she knew which end of the gun was which. In any case she suspected she was probably several cuts above the kind of thugs available in a backwater like this. She lifted the rifle and sighted down the barrel, easing off the safety with a click. She wasn't personally experienced with the Vesta but she had used similar slug throwers before, most particularly on Braxia where the thick growth of jungle drank plasma blasts too much to make a gladius really effective. 

The gun had a simple three point sight, familiar to legionnaires since the western campaigns back on old Earth. She lay down on the catwalk and butted the weapon against her shoulder, cocking one leg out to provide herself a stable shooters stance. Three trucks had pulled up at the entry gate, disgorging perhaps a dozen toughs. They were back lit by the lights of their vehicles, just black forms against bright light. That suited Sabatine fine, making her think of a gunnery range rather than a battle field.

"Alright big shots, come out and get the beating that is coming to you!" one of them roared.

"We promise, once we've given you a few lessons in minding your manners you can go about your..." 

Sabatine squeezed the trigger. Crack! Crack! Crack! The three round burst snapped out of the weapon. The speaker broke off with a scream and one of the head lights went out with a shattering storm of glass. The engine, still running, lugged, banged and then died with a cough as one of the rounds punched through something important. Sabatine resighted and squeezed of a second shot but the thugs were throwing themselves to the ground in all directions. Sabatine reached up and turned he shot selector to single. She fired at one of the silhouettes she could still see without any effect. She breathed in, breathed out, then fired again. The man spun to the ground clutching his arm and dragging himself behind the cover of a low stone wall. Gunfire ripped out from the group, punching holes in the walls of the building that were easily visible as gushes of bright head light illuminated air. It wasn't aimed in any military sense, though ricochets skittered around the interior like angry bees.