Climb

Leonard quickly made his way through the bonafide maze of crates and shelves, progress only slowed as he had to hide as a worker either drove past on a large forklift or slowly walked by. He was currently stuck, as the shelf row he wanted to cross to had a worker slowly making his way down, scanning the crates with a data pad. 

Leonard backed out the way he came squeezing past a large crate and emerging back on the other side. looking both ways to make sure it was clear he rushed down its length, heading towards the rear wall away from the loading dock. 

As he closed in he found out it wasn't just the back wall of the warehouse rather a separation from the storage area into an attached office area. Leonard had to slow his approach here, the amount of people milling about increasing the closer he got. 

"Looks like the place," Leonard thought as he spotted a pair of White Skulls blatantly walking around with rifles in hand, patrolling the entrance into the back rooms. "Two guards walking back and forth the width of the building, one guard by the door and another posted up high on the second floor balcony. This is going to be a challenge." 

Leonard crouched behind a crate at the very end of the shelf. There was a wide open gap between him and the door further inside, and while he was sure he could cut across without being seen by the pair of patrolling guards, the man by the door and sentry above would easily see him.

He could probably find a way to distract the guard by the door, however the sentry up high was the main issue. He had no way to deal with him other than his own gun, however it would be very loud and there was no doubt much more White Skulls further inside. They would all come running if Leonard started shooting, and he didn't have enough bullets for that. 

"This might be a bust," he thought as he scanned the area for anything he could use to help him get inside. However it all seemed to come to naught, nothing would be able to catch the attention of both the door guard and sentry for long enough for him to sneak inside. "Unless.." 

Leonard had a risky idea, his eyes trailing up to the steel beams holding up the roof. He had gotten inside the complex by utilising high ground, why couldn't he do that again to get inside the back rooms? 

The wall into the office spaces reached up to the ceiling, however there were many jutting out balconies looking out over the warehouse floor, like the one the sentry that was giving him a hard time was posted on. If Leonard could get onto the roof beams he could climb across the gap and then drop down onto one of them. 

However there was a problem. While the industrial shelving units were tall, they didn't reach the ceiling. The roof was shaped in a shallow upside down V shape, the centre of the roof where the support beams Leonard wanted to climb couldn't be reached by climbing the shelfs, however the sides of the building offered a solution. 

Leonard made his way back down through the crates of the shelf he was hiding on, wanting to get some distance between him and the guards before he darted across the open paths between them. Luckily the inspecting worker had moved on from where he was before, letting Leonard continue his dash across the width of the building. He didn't go back the way he had come in, he was already more than halfway across anyways. 

It didn't take long for him to reach the outermost shelf. He stood before it, looking up at its towering height. 

"This is going to leave me extremely exposed," he thought as he mentally mapped out the best way to ascend. He had hoped there would be a gap on the shelfs rear that would let him squeeze through and remain unseen, however it was flush against the warehouse wall not giving him any room. 

He would have to climb the outward face of the shelf, however if someone were to walk past they would easily see him. That would also be a problem if he could get to the roof and climb his way across the support beams, however it was so far up unless someone was looking he wouldn't be seen. 

"Best get started then." He scanned both directions, and after making sure there was no one present he started climbing. He had picked a spot where the one shelf ended and another began, letting him use the vertical pole to climb rather than pull himself up one level at a time. 

He kept his head on a swivel, ready to duck into a shelf the moment he caught the shadow of a worker. He wedged one of his feet in between the vertical poles of the neighbouring shelving units to keep balance while he pulled himself up with his arms. Whenever he got to a different level he could bring his other foot up to push himself up easier, however there was a decent gap between each level which meant his arms had to do most of the work. 

He made good ground before he had to duck and hide, a large forklift driving past that luckily didn't stop and kept going into the distance before turning at the end into a different section. Even when it was gone Leonard still didn't move just yet, taking the time to rest his tired arms. 

He leaned back on the building's face, and while he waited curiously looked at the labels on the side of the crate he was pressed up on. 

"Fairbird Shipping? Never heard of this company before." He muttered aloud, not worried about being overheard this far up. Besides, the warehouse was quite loud already. He quickly searched for the company on his comm unit and found that it was a large company based out of the Condor Kingdom. They didn't produce anything, simply being a transport company that moved goods around the galaxy. 

However the fact that they were from the Condor Kingdom raised Leonard's eyebrow. While trade between the neighbouring states was common, Leonard couldn't help but draw connections with his external knowledge. The White Skulls were an organisation controlled by the powerful Rochester noble family who only Leonard knew would rise up in rebellion. And if they were colluding with the invading Condor Kingdom already that meant he had little time left. He didn't have exact dates on anything from his knowledge from the future, only a rough outline of major events in order with no sense of how long there was between them. 

"Maybe I'm just being paranoid." Even if he thought he was thinking too much into it, he still wanted to check something first. The crate was locked shut, a small data pad on its surface acting as its control centre. Leonard played around with it for a while, however without the proper password he wouldn't be able to get through. 

"This is fairly high security for a standard shipping crate." Usually the metal containers used for shipping long distances were just pulled shut with a latch, installing security systems on everyone would be a momentous waste of money. Unless the contents inside were important. 

Leonard looked around and found that every other crate was the same, all sporting digital locks. The crates on the ground floor Leonard had been sneaking through were standard however, only using a simple latch. However the crates up higher were all different. 

"What's inside? There's no way they're shipping weapons right into the centre of Citadel are they?" However much he wanted to know, without proper authorisation he wouldn't be able to open them up to find out. "Maybe I can find something in the offices." 

"Nonetheless I best keep moving, I can always come back if I figure something out." Leonard stuck his head out and looked down both ways of the path. No one else had come through here other than the lone forklift, letting Leonard sneak out and continue his climb. 

With no more interruptions it didn't take long for him to reach the top, pulling himself over onto the top shelf. 

"Ha, so much for relaxing on medical leave." Leonard looked up, there was still ten or so metres until the ceiling. However there was a long pipe leading up and through the roof that Leonard planned to use to climb the last portion. From there he would have to climb into the middle, he had scouted this position from the ground, the ceiling here had a large I shaped beam that stretched from the central support beams to the sides of the roof and then down to the ground. 

However that would still leave him hanging upside down until he could reach a balcony to drop down to, and if he were to fall he didn't fancy his chances. Let alone that fact that the warehouse was filled with White Skulls, the fall itself would certainly kill him. 

"The things I do," He sighed before getting to work, lodging his hands between the pipe and the wall for balance before pushing up the wall with his feet. It took a lot longer to climb considering it was a flat surface however it was only ten metres up and so he quickly reached the top. Reaching up with his right hand he gripped the inside of the steel beam. 

He felt much better having something to grip onto, slowly moving his other hand before hooking his feet up. He was completely upside down now and with a slight rotation of his head could see the momentous distance he would fall if his grip faltered. 

Breathing out he began to shuffle along the beam, sliding his hands forward before pulling his body across. It was tiresome work, besides having to hold his body weight the beam was on an upward angle, sloped up with the shallow V shaped roof. 

He reached the middle after ten minutes of climbing, his arms thoroughly exhausted. Luckily he hadn't walked too far away from the back rooms however he still had a considerable distance to go. 

It took him another five minutes before he crossed over the wide gap between the shelves and the guarded rooms. He looked down and luckily no one had spotted him, all the guards going about their duties as normal. 

He looked for a landing spot, a small balcony jutting out on what he could only assume to be the 10th floor. It had no one on it, and so he readied himself to drop, letting his legs come down off the beam and angled himself up right. 

Leonard let go, and he plummeted what he assumed was 15 metres before impacting hard on the balcony, dropping to one knee. The large sliding glass door in front of him showed no one inside, the lights all being out. It pulled open with no issues and Leonard found himself in what looked to be a bedroom of some sorts. 

He didn't bother snooping around, instead making his way directly for the door at the end of the room. Outside was a long corridor lined with doors to what Leonard could only assume to be similar rooms. He doubted the warehouse workers lived in these and so assumed they were for White Skull members, and considering the sheer amount of doors on just this one floor there could be hundreds of members in this one location alone. 

He drew his gun out and swiftly made his way down the corridor. He didn't plan to shoot anyone if he could help it, however he would value his own life first. Before he could reach the end however he heard voices coming towards him. He turned and went to open the door closest to him, however it was locked. 

"Shit," the voices slowly got closer as Leonard tried door after door, all of them firmly remaining shut. However just as the first White Skull crested the corner Leonard luckily found a door that opened, throwing himself in before pulling it shut behind him. 

Inside was much the same as the last, however this time there was a man asleep on the bed. Luckily he had not been woken up by Leonards entrance, however Leonard still pointed his gun at the man as he silently creeped over. 

The man was sound asleep, snoring loudly obscuring Leonards footsteps. "Sorry buddy," Leonard whispered before bringing the butt of his pistol down on the man's forehead, knocking him out cold. 

Leonard searched the room this time, if he was to get to Willam through all the White Skulls milling about he needed to look the part. And this unfortunate man had just the uniform he needed.