Based on events in Scott Washburn's novel "Breakthrough".
January 1910 – western Kansas
After the failed raid on La Junta (The Junction Batrep), Colorado, Martian pod leader Untaferdus retreated north into the bleak vastness of the high plains. Untaferdus was able to report to Subcommander Qetjnegartis that the damaged tripod was repaired but with a reduced heat ray capacity. Qetjnegartis ordered Untaferdus to continue the raids further east. But instead of following the human rail line and risk ambush (two tripods were lost due to their predictable movements) the method of attack was to strike in an random fashion along North – South axis against the larger human settlements along the river and transportation line. This would divert the efforts of the prey creatures away from the real damage being done just behind the prey creature army.
Garden City, Kansas on the arid, treeless plains along the Arkansas River was co-founded by C.J. "Buffalo" Jones in the late 1870's. Part idealist, part adventurer, part huckster, but all cowboy, Buffalo Jones was a former bison hunter. During the 1870's he saw first hand the decimation of the bison and began his own personal mission to save the great animal from extinction. His efforts as one of the first conservationist received international acclaim and he would later become the first game warden of Yellowstone National Park in 1902. In 1907 while lecturing in New York City, Mr. Jones met a struggling writer named Zane Grey. Mr. Grey was so taken with his time with Buffalo Jones and the American Southwest that the personal qualities of Mr. Jones appeared in many of the novels later written by Mr. Grey, most prominently in, "The Last of the Plainsmen".
At the time of the second Martian invasion, Buffalo Jones had just finished an expedition to the Artic to capture musk ox and was preparing for an African safari. When he learned of tripods raiding western Kansas he had every intention of roping and capturing a Martian machine.
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finds it's better to get started than to waste time planning!
