Uh... Maybe I should weigh in on the original post before derailing any further.

Since individual hits from Linked or Autofire weapons are considered separate attacks with the same roll I see no problem with allowing someone to use Parry or Reflect on them individually since it is an out of turn incidental. The strain cost is gonna be huge tho.

As to the wounds thing I mentioned before. It is something that works for me and my group, but I understand it is not for everyone. Wound damage is something we treat as minor and to be shrugged off because the healing mechanics in the game reinforce that. Apply goo, done! The crit mechanics are more fun to us. The sometimes small sometimes large penalties give the whole combat a much more real feel. All that said, in my experience with this, actually killing a character is surprisingly hard. A 140 on the crit table is not something easy to get, and certainly can not be done by your average character in just two or three hits. It requires a particularly lethal character build to pull off, plus a whole lot of luck. Or, it requires a concerted effort handing off blue die or focusing in on a particular character who is overexposed to really make it happen. And when those crit numbers on the players start to rack up and the penalties mount it can effect the whole mission. There are more than a few penalties on the crit table that have very little to do with combat.

Plus I have noticed in all this that some of my players have started noting down scars from healed crits, or talking to each other in character about "that time you got your bell rung and couldn't barely managed to open that lock". This is not something they did often in other games.

Throw together a mock battle for yourself and give it a try. You might find it fun too.