Spacewalk boarding an atmospheric lifter impossible??

[fireanddream]

According to the hull resistance formula here marines with 100 in mechanical have no chance breaching the hull of an atmospheric lifter in spacewalk boarding. I also tried like 5 times tonight and failed them all.

But in the back of my head I have the memories of doing exactly that from previous playthrough. Hyperion, 8 marines, always my first TL, dummy, spacewalk. The Matrix admin's been messing with my head???

[Cycrow]

Its always possible. There is a small random chance of success, regardless of skill. its about 0.1% chance

but normally its not. The top 2 marines are used, so the maximum skill is 220 (10% random variance)

and you need at least, 234 to board a TL. The pods double the marines skill when used