Ah, the addition of reality to a Mike Bay movie...I'm always really bothered when massive numbers of civilians are killed or put in harms way in action scenes, but it's not even a plot point. That, and after seeing ROTF in a drive-in with friends, we all agreed that it makes us cringe whenever priceless archaeological relics and librarys are destroyed for teh funz of the esplosions. Which they invariably are.
Great little story.

Enjoyable story, and you've clearly done your research.

As with the other stories in this series, the skillful descriptions of the "unimaginable" effectively transports me to the scene with the human characters. Emphasis on the disorientation felt by those characters, both by war and by the presence of the aliens, further challenges me to consider the issues and feel the situations that they are experiencing. The inclusion of the humans’ thoughts regarding the Cybertronian duty of stripping energon from their dead was particularly powerful in terms of “keeping the aliens alien”.

Describing the consequences of military action through Will not only gives us the perspective of his knowledge of the Law, but his perspective according to how he anticipates that Law will be applied to his actions.
This is particularly interesting to me as someone who has studied Law... application of any given Law involves both the "letter of the Law" and the "spirit of the Law". When circumstances go beyond the laws as they are written, then the spirit of that law takes over. While the existence of the Law and the obligation to apply it cannot be ignored (plot writers: pay attention…) this does raise some interesting questions about the applicability of laws that were written for conflicts in which it was just people fighting other people. Poor Will… I fear he may end up between a rock and a hard place as the only truthful explanations for his actions involve Things The Public Doesn’t Need To Know About (aliens) and People Who Don’t Exist (Sector 7 agents).

You know, I had always wondered about the repercussions that would result from using Mission City as firing range. But I didn't go into depth over it because the SecDef was there and Keller never disapproved the plan.

Nicely written piece here, with a rather ominous ending. I don't think many cover the legal aspect of what could have happened after Mission City, and this was interesting.

Wow, now this is almost exactly what I figured would happen after the fact. The gov't has to cover its aft, and who else would they blame but the little guy.
I also wouldn't have been surprised to see that Simmons would file charges against Lennox. But, maybe when he found himself fighting and barely surviving against a 3 foot alien, he realized the only thing they could have done with the cube was run. Dare I hope he testifies in Will's behalf?
Great start.

Would Lennox's assaulting a superior officer (Simmons, who's rank could be a lieutenant colonel) be also added to that list?

Ah, the after math, and lawyers. No avoiding the lawyers. Excellent point on the repercussions from that side.

M...finally, a *realistic* fic about the immediate aftermath. I love your descriptions of the damage, how everyone struggles to cope as well as the realism of the slow rescue response. Most everyone seems to forget/ignore the repurcussions of a global communications blackout.

Very, very good use of the Geneva articles (and I wholeheartedly agree with you about Bay - fill a danged think tank!). Poor Will. You're going to live to see entirely new books written on war due to the introduction of a second species...