Also, Exteas do not automatically die. See page SWADE 96. They ate incapacitated and usually their fate is ignored, but when it matters they can survive.

We know… that’s largely just how we play. it just is never worth the time to confirm, unless the party goes and checks the body, we won’t know. So, unless the story dictates it or the players confirm the kills, we technically don’t know who did or did not, but for the extra’s, they would only matter as witnesses. Which, again depends on the story. Our SOP is to not spend the time to figure it out, unless the player mission requires no witnesses:-D

Yes, I am asking how do other GMs handle GM fiat beyond the rules as the RAW speaks in absolutes, like a Sith.

Indeed. Going purely by the book, specially page 95, an incapacitated character (by damage or injury) must make a Vigor check. This should be subject to the penalties of having 3 wounds (usually -3) and failure also means Bleeding Out and makes a vigor check each round or dies. So, on a Vigor roll, a 7 is needed to not die and an 11 is needed to Stabilize.

This can then be modified by the situation. Just like Hacking isn’t a pure “get a 4 on the roll and the world is yours” and, instead, is subject to situational modifiers… so too are these rolls. Largely, my group has chosen to not notice on high-death games, so we do it pretty vanilla. But, we have had a few “special” games where we included modifiers to these survival rolls.

I think for Heavy Weapons, we defaulted to a -4 for characters who aren’t inherently Heavy Armor. I think explosions/fire would be a stacking -2 (so a Heavy Weapon explosion would be -6). This would then be upwards of a -9 on a Vigor and almost assuredly a dead character.