November 13, 1870
This morning, one of my colleagues presented some rather alarming news from the Times Daily. A few nights ago, a scouting party stumbled upon an abandoned Piegan Blackfeet reservation in Indian Territory, and what they found was a monstrous scene of carnage. The paper was quick to dismiss the affair as vengeance for the Baker massacre, however, Major Baker denied all the accusations levied against him.
However, the scene was unusual as it was ghastly. There were shells, but no bodies, as if though they were moved elsewhere. Major Willis, who commanded the scouting party, attested to an even more peculiar oddity. There were mysterious imprints found in the mud. According to his statement:
"They were tracks of some kind; segmented but continuous. They steered westward but when we followed them, they disappeared after two miles. Like they lifted from the ground and flew away. Whatever made them was mechanical and not animal."
I read about an 'endless railway wheel' by James Boydell and a wagon with mobile treads from Zagryazhsky years earlier. Even da Vinci proposed an armored-plated wagon with an internal combustion engine, but such science is far too sophisticated for contemporary means. Still, I felt the need to calculate the dimensions of this mysterious vehicle.
It must have been eighteen feet long by nine or ten feet in height. The engine would run off steam. Though no present engine is capable of supplying the fuel needed to operate such a beastly machine. Indeed, all of this would have been an ugly atrocity bearing no ominous forethought, but I distinctly recall the Razor-Claw mentioning Indian Territory.