Oh thank you! for reminding me/giving me a lead.
So, I hadn't tried does immune_to_interception_and_aoe (I had not remember/found it). I also hadn't tried a shield shot that does AOE damage on death (to clear out the shots). What I did next though was to use shots_can_withstand_x_shot_interceptions="100". Which works without having to change much of anything.
