Date: March 11th, 1861
Time: Early-morning
Location: Outside the City Limits

Mikhail rode within the cockpit of his Foundry Truck. It had taken him quite some time to not only procure the vehicle, but to fix it up as well. Anyways, it drove well now. The clock-powered navigation system was doing a superb job, taking him directly to a silver vein that he had stumbled upon a few weeks ago. Leaving the cockpit, Mikhail passed through the hall that ran down the length of the truck. In the back were its boilers, which heated the foundries on either side. Right in front of the foundries sat the processing rooms, which was where his spiders brought any and all materials that they managed to procure.

A butterfly, small and simple, lazily flew past him, its copper wings beating furiously in their clockwork bindings. Several more followed after the first, circling around Mikhail. Then, after landing softly on his shoulders, Mikhail took them one by one and wound their springs back up. The butterflies then flew back into the air, their flight now precise and exact. Smiling to himself, Mikhail let one of them land on his mechanical arm. Pulling his goggles down with his free hand, he studied the small machine in his grasp. There were several light scratches on its wings. Not enough to affect its flight, but it was something that would have to be fixed eventually.

Letting the butterfly leave his hand, Mikhail stepped over one of his spiders. They were usually walking on the walls or the ceiling, but sometimes they would travel along the floor. This one in particular was outfitted for maintenance. Such as cleaning and rust removal, things like that. Now the next to rooms, in front of the processing rooms but behind the cockpit, were his research center and his living quarters. Relatively small, his living quarters only took up a small portion of one of the rooms. The rest of the room along with the room opposite the hall were filled with pieces of machinery and future projects.

Then, at the very front of the truck was the cockpit. Nothing much, it held a steering wheel and the dials for the engine. Usually manned by two or more of his spiders, Mikhail actually enjoyed driving the vehicle around. Now underneath the cockpit and the rest of the truck’s body were the hangars. Now these were hardly full, but they held Mikhail’s full company of spiders, which was twenty in total.

Sighing to himself, Mikhail suddenly hit the wall to his left. The entire truck tipped over, and then rocked back into its upright position. His eyes opened wide, Mikhail took a moment to get his bearings. Gritting his teeth, the man ran into his living quarters. There, leaning against the far wall was a rifle. Grabbing it in his hurry, Mikhail was clad in brown pants and boots, a white button up shirt covered his chest and arms, which was in turn covered up by a brown vest. Slinging a bandolier with bullets over his shoulder, Mikhail ran to the truck’s top hatch. On his way he began to order his butterflies and spiders.

“Alright! Execute code 95! We are under attack! Execute code 95!” Immediately, in response to his words, the hangars opened up underneath the cockpit. Immediately, 15 spiders crawled out from the truck’s mouth. Their metal legs clicking against the metal floor, walls, and ceiling of the hangars. As Mikhail twisted the hatch open and thrust the door up, he poked his head up. A large beast, like a lizard and nearly half the size of his truck, was standing there. Thankfully, its focus was completely on the spiders down below.

His butterflies flew up through the hatch as well and began to circle around the beast. Their eyes now opened and recording. Their signals travelled through the air, received by his goggles. All of a sudden, Mikhail could see what they saw along with what he saw. Their views had already been sorted on his vision, as such he could see the beast just fine. “Damnit, it’s a fucking Sand Viper.”

Pulling his rifle up through the hatch, Mikhail steadied it against the top of the truck. Taking aim, he wanted to shoot the beast anywhere in its head. Then, pulling the trigger, the bullet went flying towards the beast, passing right over its nose. Mikhail cursed as he loaded another bullet, cursing himself even more when the Sand Viper turned its attention to him. “Code 43!” He shouted. Immediately, the butterfly that had stayed with him relayed the order to all his other machines. “Code 24!” The truck began to move again, this time circling the Sand Viper and the spiders. The spiders moved as well. Like one metallic wave they surged against the beast, cutting away at its ankles and climbing up its back. Several of them got hit by the club on its tail as another got caught in its mouth. 

Taking a deep breath, Mikhail aimed at the beast again. However, when he pulled the trigger this time the discharged bullet made contact. The piece of metal gouged into the beast’s cheek. Making it howl in pain and focus itself on Mikhail again. Releasing his breath, Mikhail shouted, “Code 2!” Then the spiders attacked. The Sand Viper, distracted and following Mikhail’s movement as he circled the beast, did not stand a chance. Immediately the spiders surged up at the beast’s hardly protected stomach. Ripping and tearing, viscera and blood splattered against the ground. His once coppery spiders were now covered in blood and gore.

Screaming the Sand Viper thrashed around, but it was already too late. The spiders were inside the beast now, ripping and tearing away. Eventually they reached its heart, and with a cold shudder, the Sand Viper slumped to the ground. Leaning back against his own truck, Mikhail sat there, confused. The battle was easy, too easy. Not only that, but the Sand Viper had been dangerously close to the city. This was strange, but Mikhail certainly wasn’t going to report it. If he did that, then the authorities would discover his little silver mine. Getting up, he slung the rifle over his shoulder and called out. “Code 99! Code 100!” The spiders began to crawl back out of the beast’s stomach. Several of them grabbed their injured comrades and brought them back into the hangars.

The rest began to dismantle the Viper’s body. They started at its head, separating it from the rest of the body, then they made a slit all the way down the throat to the tip of the tail. Moving quickly and efficiently, they removed the teeth from the jaws and the scaled skin from its flesh. Laying it out to dry, they returned to the corpse. Cutting away at chunks of meat, they stored them away in a cold room that was on the same level as the hangars. Then they removed the bones, and after cleaning them off, stored them within the hangars. Awaiting the skin to dry, the spiders began to dig a hole. Once it had reached a satisfactory depth, they emptied the unusable remains into the pit. Thankfully, the hide was dry by the time they finished filling the hole back in. Then they stored the hide in the hangars as well.

Sighing, Mikhail watched as his spiders stored themselves back in the hangars. Climbing back into his truck, the butterflies following him, Mikhail made sure to secure the hatch. Making his way to the cockpit, the man punched the coordinates for the silver vein back in. Grumbling, he went into his workshop. There were spiders that needed to be fixed. Damn, that fight had taken several hours.