AN: Well, to celebrate Christmas, as well as being in a very magnanimous mood, I've written up a special little Christmas special featuring that Marine officer we all know and love. Anyways, time for the legal matters. The title and some elements of this fic are based on the novel of the same name, which I do not own. All that stuff belongs to its respectful owners.

"Being a proud veteran of the UNSC Marine Corps, I've been through more battles and conflicts than I care to remember. I've also had my share of men and women who feel that they have gone through "religious" or "magical" experiences, situations that seemed almost impossible yet happened right before their very eyes. However, I've always remained skeptical about these "experiences", since I was brought up to believe that there was always a perfectly good explanation for everything. If there was ever a time where I thought that there was something remotely out there that couldn't possibly be explained, it would be during a certain Christmas back in 2551…"

-From the memoirs of Karla A. Wellings

Tau Serra, Aphrodites System

December 14, 2551

The cold night air bit into Lieutenant Karla Wellings' face as she lay out in the snow, staring at the glittering patchwork of stars above her. She didn't like to admit it, but snow was completely alien to her, since she had lived or served in temperate regions and planets for most of her life. Though she was taught about the physical properties of snow and had seen recordings and pictures of it, Karla had never actually had the chance to see and feel it in person.

And to tell the truth, she rather liked it.

Karla's radio buzzed as somebody tried to establish a connection to her. Karla sighed. She was just beginning to enjoy her few precious moments of peace. She turned it on and heard the voice of a radio operator whose voice was as cold and empty as the snow around her.

"Lieutenant Wellings, thirty minutes have passed. Please report your status."

Karla sat up and glanced over at her crewmates. There was Sergeant Williams, her shotgun and backup driver, making sure the Warthog engines were still warm, and her gunner Private Karen Sykes, who was just a few feet away making snow angels. Karla raised her eyebrow in a silent question. Williams and Sykes glanced at her and quickly shook their heads.

"Uhhh, we still appear to be unable to get a fix on our position." Karla responded. "I think the magnetics are interfering with the GPS. We'll report back in about…" Karla checked her watch, "one hour."

"Roger that." The operator clearly sounded unconvinced, but there wasn't really anything he could do. "I'll let Captain Armbruster know right away."

"So how long do you think till Captain A. gets pissed enough to try and find us himself?" Karen asked.

"That's assuming he doesn't get lost in the process." Williams laughed. "The guy has to ask directions to find the damn bathroom."

Karla grinned. "He won't do squat, because I'm the unlucky individual who has to do all his work for him. Though we'd better get back soon or he'll have us cleaning latrines for the rest of the month."

"Ew, what a way to spend Christmas." Karen grimaced.

"Yeah. It seems like a drag, having to spend it on the front lines." Williams sighed. "You know, back on Earth before I joined up, me and my family used to celebrate Christmas like the Covenant never existed. Sure, there was the rationing and the media blackouts, but nobody seemed concerned at the time."

"And they still probably aren't." Karla frowned. "But let them enjoy their delights. After all, they can probably be their last."

"Jeez, Lieutenant, you seem to have a cynical attitude about the holidays. Next thing you know, you're going to say that you never believed in Santa."

Karla didn't say anything.

"No." Karen gasped. "Don't tell me you never believed in Santa Claus ever."

"I prefer to think myself as skeptical rather than cynical." Karla calmly replied. "Since I find it hard to believe that some jolly fat man can span entire star systems, delivering presents to billions of children in a single standard day, and doing it all in a reindeer powered sled."

"Sheesh, no wonder why everybody's afraid of you." Karen grimaced.

"Oh, believe me, there are a LOT more reasons." Williams said glumly. "The only thing that confirms that she is even vaguely human is the fact that she constantly talks to me about her kid sister."

"Really?" Karen's eyes widened. "I didn't take you for the big sister type."

Karla brushed off some snow that had been piling up on her shoulder. "That's because you're new, young, and a bad judge of character."

"Grouch." Karen grumbled.

Karla however, didn't respond. The conversation reminded her about Samantha, and Karla was now wondering what her little sister was up to now. The last time she had seen Sam in person, Karla was preparing to leave for accelerated officer training on Reach. Through some messages and some work on Karla's part, Sam was enrolled in the War Orphan Education Program. The program provided education, housing, and basic needs to orphans who had at least one parent that served as an officer in the Navy or Marines for more than two years, all at the cost of the UNSC. However, the catch was that all applicants were required to volunteer for public service once they reached the age of eighteen, and during these turbulent times, it would most likely be something of a military nature.

It was no secret that Sam wanted to be Marine, just like her big sister. From the mail she managed to receive, Karla knew that Sam was planning to transfer out of the facility she was staying in on Earth to Aeola for boot camp. However, due to the results of her aptitude and personality tests, as well as her marksmanship abilities, the recruiters decided Sam would make a better sniper than officer, which was all the better. Karla was terrified at the thought of somebody as carefree as Sam leading a platoon of Marines.

That reminded Karla of something. She reached into one of her vest pockets and pulled out a silver bell, which shone brilliantly under the moonlight. It was a gift from Sam shortly before Karla left for training. Sam had boasted that it was a "lucky bell" that Santa Claus had given her one Christmas. As usual, Karla was skeptical about the claim, but Sam would always be Sam. Hell, Sam probably still believed Santa was real, knowing how her mind worked. Anyways, Karla had always carried the bell around, but could never figure out why. It was pretty, but it was also broken. Not matter how many times she tried, Karla had never been able to get the bell to make a sound. Karla remembered one time when she wrote to Sam complaining that it was broken. Then Sam responded that it "worked fine", that Karla "wasn't using it right", and that "it made the most beautiful sound you ever heard."

Karla shook her head. Sam would always be Sam.

"We should be getting back now." Karla got to her feet and started brushing off the snow that had collected on her armor. "If we stay out here too long, we really are going to get lost."

Tau Serra was like many of the other Outer Colonies. It was fairly out of the way and well populated. There weren't any distinguishing features that made it special, except for the fact that it was in the path of an incoming Covenant armada. Even with the ONI Section 2 media blackouts, word of the armada was somehow leaked to the general public. In a wave of panic, many of Tau Serra's inhabitants desperately tried to find a way off the rock. Civilian ships of all types and sizes were tasked to pick up refugees and ferry them to nearby planets. The UNSC Navy provided some assistance, but the evacuation was a long way from complete. One of the largest tragedies was taking place in the city of Bell Haven. The city's spaceport was horribly unprepared for the sudden influx of refugees. At any point of time, the queue to get inside was at least a kilometer long. What was even more tragic was that many of the families that lived in the suburbs outside of the city were fated be last to reach the port.

Sensing the distress and panic beginning to grow throughout the population, the officer in charge of the ground forces, General Marcus Black, organized a program codenamed "Polar Express". For their guaranteed safety, children below the age of twelve were permitted to board a train bound for the nearby city of Helio, which had a larger and more efficient port. A matter of hours after the program was announced, the train terminal was filled with hundreds of parents and their children, eager for a chance at salvation.

Bell Haven Main Terminal

"My god." General Marcus Black sighed when he looked down on the lines of parents ushering their children into the waiting train. "How have things come to this? How are we supposed to explain to these children that we're putting them on a train because an alien threat is coming to exterminate us all? I don't know about you, Lieutenant, but I find trying to explain all this to a ten year old beyond my expertise."

"Well, we don't have to worry about that, since we don't have to." Lieutenant Ryan Hubbard said smugly.

General Black narrowed his eyes and looked at the Office of Naval Intelligence agent suspiciously. "What are you trying to say?"

"What I'm saying is, we don't have to tell these kids everything." Hubbard motioned to the train. "It's basic Section Two protocol: tell the truth, but just not all of it. We just say that the train is taking them to see Santa Claus. That's why the age limit has been set so low, because statistically, children that below the age of twelve are ninety percent more likely to believe in the existence of Santa."

"That's sick." General Black's eyes widened in shock. "I would never allow something like that."

"With all due respect sir, people do it all the time. Have you ever been to a mall? I can guarantee you that every single one will have at least one 'Santa' sitting in the middle listening to children's wish lists for Christmas. This is basically the same thing, except a bit more elaborate."

General Black nodded, but was still uneasy. "Okay, so how do you intend to pull this off?"

"Preparations are already underway." Hubbard said proudly. "The train cars have been reinforced and soundproofed to the point where several ounces of C7 can blow up just a few feet away and nobody inside would feel a thing. The windows are actually special high definition image projectors designed to make the kids see what we want them to. Finally, the entire crew is staffed by specially trained ONI personnel. The train will also be stopping at Starpoint Station, where we'll join several military-grade cars onto it and task a company of Marines to protect it."

"I just hope to god this works." General Black said cautiously. "It'd be a disaster and a morale killer if anybody finds out that the Covenant managed to blow up a train full of kids on our watch."

"Just leave those details to me, General." Hubbard said in a businesslike fashion.

"Anyways, I should be going down to address the crowd. Dismissed."

After making sure the General had left the room, Hubbard took out a recording disk and spoke into it.

"Sir, this is Lieutenant Ryan Hubbard reporting. I've set up everything just as you planned, down to the Marine company we're choosing to defend that train. As for informing General Black about it… I've only told him what he needed to know," Ryan said rather diplomatically, "Our primary cargo is also being loaded as well, as well as the children. It should reach Helio in a day or two where our science teams will pick it up. Message ends."

Hubbard then inserted the disk into a secure envelope and placed it in a special drop box. The disk would be loaded onto a COM probe and then sent back to his superiors on Earth. At least, that was the plan anyways. Hubbard glanced at the rear of the train, where he caught sight of a gang of men loading a large, ominous Titanium A crate onto one of the cargo cars. Hubbard had made sure that the men loading the crate did not know of its contents, nor would they tell anybody about its existence, or the primary objective of this mission would be compromised.

Hubbard sighed. Sometimes this job was far more stressful than he would have liked. He checked his watch and realized that it was almost time to leave. He had a train to catch, after all.

Starpoint Station

Williams and Karen both sighed as they heard shouting in the makeshift HQ set up in the train station. Karla was again in a heated debate with Captain Armbruster over proper troop deployment. Armbruster had wanted to deploy her platoon into the nearby forests and sweep them for possible Covenant activity. Karla had refused to send her platoon in, stating that it was a job for an infantry unit, on a mechanized one. The trees would force her Warthogs to bunch up into tight formations and they would be unable to use their biggest advantage, mobility.

"I don't get it." Karen sighed. "If they hate each other so much, why doesn't Captain A just transfer the Lieutenant?"

"Because she's a better commander than him and he knows it." Williams replied. "Armbruster just puts up an argument to stubbornly hide that fact."

"Oh shit, is that Major Mackenzie?" Karen pointed to a Marine striding down the hall towards the HQ.

"I think it is." Williams' HUD winked on and displayed the officers' name and rank, confirming his suspicions.

Major Mackenzie didn't even seem phased by the argument between Karla and Armbruster. He merely strode into the room and the shouting immediately halted. A few minutes passed, and then Mackenzie finally left the room with Armbruster close behind. Karla then exited the room and joined Williams and Karen.

"Grab the squad leaders and tell them to meet me at the briefing room in five." Karla told Williams.