Can you save Christmas?

Story:

High above the snow-capped ridgelines of the Changbai mountains, Santa Claus was making excellent time—or at least he was, until a swarm of autonomous reconnaissance drones locked onto his sleigh’s anomalous heat signature.

Mistaking the ancient holiday courier for a high-speed foreign incursion, the drones opened fire.

A thunder of explosions shattered the night sky, and the sleigh spiralled down through the treeline. Santa survived the crash, but his sled lay crippled in the forest, glowing hot and half-buried in the snow.

Chinese rapid-reaction troops were scrambled within minutes.

Believing they had intercepted an experimental stealth craft rather than a jolly old man with a diplomatic immunity no one has ever bothered to file, they began sweeping the forest.

Santa—injured, unarmed, and more annoyed than he’s been since the Great Reindeer Flu of ’87—was forced to flee into the dense woodland, leaving behind his damaged sleigh and most of the presents.

Recognizing both the geopolitical risk and the catastrophic impact on global morale should Santa be captured on foreign soil, NATO and the U.N. activated SPECON.

Founded in 2008 and hardened by over a decade of covert deployments, SPECON teams are the world’s most adaptive rapid-response operators—experts at slipping across borders, resolving impossible crises, and pretending Christmas magic isn’t real even when it keeps happening in front of them.

Your mission is simple, if not easy: cross the border under blackout conditions, navigate the mountain woodlands, locate Santa, and secure the crash site. Repair the sleigh if possible—or at minimum, keep it out of enemy hands.

Chinese patrols are already combing the forest, and they won’t hesitate if they spot you.

Expect drones, trackers, and elite winter units hunting anything that moves.

 Christmas depends on you. Try not to get on the naughty list.