They hit the ash dunes running.
"One minute!" Horg signaled, looking at his chrono.
They scrambled up the ridge, lungs burning, packs heavy with stolen fuel. They dove behind a rocky outcrop just as the timer hit zero.
The world turned blue.
The refinery didn't just explode; it vaporized. A pillar of azure fire shot a thousand feet into the air, piercing the smog layer. The shockwave hit them seconds later, a wall of hot wind that stripped the top layer of ash from the dunes.
The sound was a deep, chest-rattling *THUMP* that echoed for miles.
Kael stood up and looked over the rock.
Where the refinery had been, there was only a crater of molten glass. The intake pipes were twisted wreckage. The Spire's fuel supply for the sector was gone.
"Beautiful," Horg whispered.
Access lights were blinking on all over the distant outpost towers. Alarms were wailing across the valley.
"They see it," Elric said, crawling up beside them. "Every Spire outpost within a hundred miles just saw that."
"Good," Kael said.
He looked at the burning pillar. It was a lighthouse in the dark.
"Deserters will see it too," Kael said. "They'll know someone is fighting back. They'll know where to go."
"Or they'll know where to run away from," Elric countered.
"Fear or hope," Kael said, turning away from the fire. "Either way, they're awake now."
He adjusted his pack.
"Let's move. Before the airships arrive."
They vanished back into the Deep Ash, leaving the fire to burn.