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Ran into a "rules break, everybody dies" problem in a game today. My list included two Vengeance Weapon Batteries with the Battle Cannon upgrade.
Help?

The Situation: 5-model enemy infantry unit, and we'll say for the purpose of clarity it is effectively surrounded by my jetbike unit. Not in CC/engaged, just with my friendly jetbike models exactly 1" away from each enemy infantry model.
It is now near the end of the shooting phase.
This 5-model enemy unit is the "nearest enemy unit within range and line of sight of the" VWB.

The Question: What happens? By the rules of Automated Fire the VWB is forced to target this 5-model enemy infantry unit. But that would be an illegal shooting attack, because the large blast would be placed over the friendly jetbike models which is expressly not allowed ("You cannot place the blast marker so that the base or hull of any friendly model is even partially under it.").

My opponent of course said due to this snafu it doesn't get to fire at all.
I of course said since it is an illegal target it doesn't count and the VWB targets the nearest legally targetable unit.

Is one of us correct? Are neither of us correct? Is there no RAW solution at all?
Does this just mean roll-off to see which interpretation you use every time, since my opponent and I had different interpretations of the ruling with no backup rules to quote from the book?

Thanks for your help clarifying this mess!

Automated fire fires at the nearest unit, not nearest legal target

If you can't fire it at the nearest unit then it can't fire at all.

Crownaxe,
The decision to not fire the Weapon would require us to have the choice not to fire the weapon, would it not?

In general,
This is one of those situations where we have equally Advanced Rules that require us to complete two actions, one which will render the other illegal, which is a direct conflict. However, unlike Basic Vs Advanced, there is nothing specifically giving us permission to resolve one Rule over the other. This would therefore require us to fall back on the fundamental concepts of how a Rule-System works, in particular the concept that "Can Not" will over-rule "Must" in such conflicts. Of course, depending on your opponent, their concept of how fundamentals work could be different to your own so discuss it a head of time.

Personally:
I believe it is why these Buildings are so cheap, and face it they are a steal for what they bring.
If it wasn't for this flaw, they would replace Tanks in a whole bunch of non-Imperial armies....

Doesn't the same issue come up every time the nearest enemy is in combat?

Yeah I was wondering about that HawaiiMatt, but didn't want t ask for fear of the mess it'd open up.

Or the nearest Enemy is a flyer, and the weapon in question is Blast.

Wish they written nearest legal target.