SECONDARY QUEST- A Light in the Darkness
[@Ulstermann]

"Fuck's sake." Carsons words rang out from up above, ironically summing up exactly how Boss felt. Picking himself up and doing the best to dust off his increasingly dirty body he was rather pleased to see that none of his weapons seemed to banged up from the fall. "Looks like we're splitting up. Just keep heading upwards, that'll get you to the upper deck." Carson reached into his pack and withdrew two small torches. Attaching one to his AK barrel he tossed the other down to Boss who caught the device in an underhanded catch. Looking for a way back up Boss quickly realized Carson was right; the only way out for now was forward. 

"Clip that under your shotgun barrel." Carson called oncemore while Boss was in the middle of blinding himself with the torchlight-he hadn't been sure what the thing was but had hit the button nonetheless. "I'm gonna backtrack till I find a way up. Good luck!" With that Carson turned on his heel and jogged off. 

“See ya on the other side.” Boss hollered upwards to Carson who had already disappeared. Fumbling with the torchlight for a second he finally got the blasted thing attached to his shotgun. As he made his way deeper into the groaning metal hull he decided it best to leave his light off for now-he was well aware just how much the element of surprise could play into a firefight; especially at close quarters such as this. 

For the most part the lower decks found himself traversing were almost abandoned-a fact not surprising, Boss thought, considering all the water he was having to wade his way through.

After what seemed like an eternity of wandering in the darkened leaky ship Boss found himself in what looked like a giant kitchen of sorts-industrial sized stoves and ovens clinging to one side of the room while a vast amount of counter tops took up the remainder of free space, pots and pans of varying size still hanging from the ceiling and cluttering the floor no doubt from the wreck. 

He stopped in his tracks as he heard a heavily accented voice singing from the opposite end of the kitchen; the nasally sing songy voice accompanied by the familiar sound of siring meat. 

“Les poissons, les poissons
How I love les poissons
Love to chop and to serve little fish
First I cut off their heads
Then I pull out their bones
Ah mais oui, ca c'est toujours délice”

The voice echoed around the room in broken English just as Boss caught sight of the man singing; a particularly large flash of flame momentarily illuminating the figure of a rather portly looking man clad in a dirty chefs apron-the site of a bulging gas tank on his back and sword at his side immediately making Boss cuss beneath his breathe. Hopefully he could catch the man off guard and send him to hell with one well placed shot to that gas tank strapped to his back. 

Creeping his way up alongside the countertops that made up the middle of the room Boss edged himself as closely as he felt comfortably could. Peeking up just over the counter he used the long chipped and battered tabletop to steady his shotgun on the unaware cook. He was moments away from squeezing the trigger when a deep, guttural voice rang out from the adjacent room past the cook. 

“Wheres Food, Cookie?” 

The owner of the voice quickly emerged into the room-the massive figure of what Boss quickly recognized as a Supermutant literally having to hunch his power armor encased body through the doorway. He clutched a minigun loosely in his right hand as if the massive weapon weighed no more then a few pounds. 

“Combien de fois dois-je vous dire?! Vous ne pouvez pas précipiter mes créations!! Dois-je vous tracas sur la façon dont vous ramassez et le pillage!?” The chef like figure roared in outrage at the intrusion in his kitchen while angrily flipping the contents of his current cooking pan. (Translation: “How many times must I tell you?! You cannot rush my creations!! Do I hassle you over how you loot and pillage!?”) 

Boss quickly decieded it was best to try his luck-perhaps if things worked just right not only could he kill the cook (Cookie?) but he could take out the armor clad mutant as well. Without hesitating any further he squeezed the trigger-one solid slug booming to life as it struck home square in Cookies gas tank. An odd pwang sound filled the air mere milliseconds before Cookie erupted into an explosion of fire and smoke-the sudden display completely lighting up the ill lit kitchen and no doubt burning the cooks last meal. 

For a second Boss had thought his plan had worked rather well-the only remnants he could make out of the portly cook clinging to the cieling in a sickening pile. But then out of the smoke emerged the Supermutant, his salvaged powerarmor whizzing him over to the blackened sickly remains of Cookie. 

”Cookie?!” He shouted to a man who was no longer there, his beedy black eyes focused in a look of both pain and anguish as he clearly tried to make since of what had just happend-thats when Boss shot again, the solid round richocheting off a large scrap made pauldron on the mutants shoulder. 

Roaring in anger he turned the minigun on Boss, the large weapon humming to life began turning the countertops Boss hid behind into swiss cheese-bullets tearing with ease through the old tabletop. 

Moments away from becoming a bullet riddled corpse Boss knew he had to act-so as he often did he threw caution to the wind ; breaking from cover he began to run up the side of cabinets his atacker wasn't shooting at-although the minute he broke from cover the armor enhanced mutant turned the minigun on Boss with surprising speed. Boss braced himself for the impact of bullets as the minigun continued to hum its deadly song.

And then an explosion from somewhere up above rocked the already fragile hull, the shock of the unseen blast rocking the minigun toting mutant off balance for the few precious moments Boss needed to survive as he closed the gap. 

Gaining his balance as quickly as he could the large mutant, known as Man-at-Arms to his cohorts, did his best to bring his gun up again and blast away the quickly approaching Boss. The barrels of his gun had just begun to whirl to life as Boss closed the distance-the madmans shotgun roaring to life yet again, this time however his solid slug had been aimed at the Mutants weapon. The shotgun slug did its intended job-the minigun making a rather awkward and painful sounding [i]Kar-krunch[/i] as it failed to spin in place. 

Defenseless but not out of the fight yet Man-at-arms gave one more defiant roar as he grabbed at Boss like some kind of angry child-only to reel back horrified as Boss blew four of his fingers off. Relentlessly he pumped the shotgun again and fired, taking advantage of Man-At-Arms momentary hesitation. He didn't quit firing until he was met with the dull and empty click that signified he no longer had any shells in his gun-and even then he wished he still had some rounds to put into the still slightly twitching pile of metal and flesh that was now Man-At-Arms. 

Instead he withdrew his .45 while slinging his shotgun over his shoulder, dashing his way over the still bleeding mutant he made his way out of the kitchen and into the winding hallways of the ship-eventually finding one completely intact ladder the led topside much to his relief. 

Holstering his pistol he hoisted himself up onto the ladder; gritting his teeth he pushed the thoughts aside that he was pretty much doing this all for a stranger as he made his way up the ladder. Reaching what he assumed was a hatchway on the ceiling he crossed his fingers hoping it would lead topside. Luckily he was met with sunlight as he hefted the heavy door open, pulling himself above deck he was somewhat relieved to see Carson wearing a face that mirrored his same weery expression.