It was Christmas Eve and a heavy snowfall blanketed the small town of North Pole, Alaska. Twelve-year-old Billy stared out his bedroom window, hoping the weather might cancel Santa's annual trip this year. He loved Christmas, but the older he got, the more doubtful he became that some jolly old man could really visit every child across the entire world in one night.
As Billy helped his mother set out cookies and milk, loud knocking echoed from their front door. Billy's dad opened it to find their elderly neighbor Old Jack standing on the steps, his beard encrusted with snowflakes.
"You folks gotta get out quick! Grab your winter gear and follow me - there's an evacuation order for the whole town!" Old Jack panted.
Moments later, the family emerged into the swirling blizzard carrying hastily stuffed backpacks, having no idea what was happening. Two large military snow plow trucks were crawling through the deepening snow drifts with their emergency lights flashing, guiding townspeople out of their homes and directing them towards strange pulsating lights on the outskirts of town.
Several military transport planes kept passing overhead as well. Billy could just barely make out the silhouettes of tanks and other unidentifiable cargo being airdropped from the planes as they disappeared into the whiteout conditions up above.
It wasn't until the townspeople had all gathered at the edge of town that the source of those colorful sky flashes finally became clear. Nestled at the base of a small mountain range was a compound of buildings marked with emergency beacons that flashed red and green. Guard towers stood erected around the perimeter, with heavily armed soldiers patrolling from within.
As civilians crowded towards bunker-like entrances glowing from within the mountainside, several stoic soldiers finally revealed the startling truth: a giant meteor was confirmed to be inbound, promising cataclysmic impact somewhere in Alaska within hours!
The panicked citizens realized that evacuation time was now dangerously short before this miles-wide fiery space rock struck somewhere nearby. But precisely projected impact sites remained unclear, as seismic activity and communications blackouts were already hindering scientists' ability to make accurate calculations.
"Ladies and gentlemen your attention! The President has authorized me to make emergency public revelation of an incredibly important secret project that may save lives if we’re lucky." Announced one uniformed man who identified himself as General Barker, the base chief of this covert compound.
"Directly below us lies a classified expansion tunnel leading deep towards the interior of Mount Santa Claus." He continued.
Stunned reactions rippled through the gathered crowd. Mount Santa Claus was merely a mythical name on Alaskan maps according to a local folktale about a magical spirit who supposedly protected children and oversaw the winter season. Certainly, no real subterranean complex existed there... right?
"I understand this likely sounds unbelievable.” General Barker conceded, noting people's dubious expressions. “But beneath that dormant volcano, we've been covertly excavating in secret for decades... we've built and hidden nothing short of Santa Claus's authentic magical workshop headquarters!”
The bunkers are powered by geothermal vents and contain next-gen hydropower turbines harnessing elemental energy unlike anything known anywhere on Earth." He claimed.
Uneasy laughter now peppered anxious small talk among citizens. Billy too felt skeptical upon hearing the military general claim that this remote, unassuming Alaskan base secretly contained actual tangible evidence supporting the mythical Santa legends.
Was the general losing his grip on reality from the stress of this crisis? Had he contrived such bizarre underground fables merely as some last desperate attempt to spark morale with holiday themes before the end of time itself finally came?
“Please all of you... I urge you to keep open minds for this next revelation.” General Barker went on solemnly, hands raised as if speaking to a congregation. “Because only one slim chance of survival now remains for saving everyone here from obliteration...We must phone Santa Claus directly to warn him that Christmas itself and all his meticulous preparations now lay in grave jeopardy this year... unless we can convince him to fully activate the magic of his full arsenal!”
Billy and the other townsfolk continued listening in stunned silence.
"I have been granted emergency authorization from the highest military chain of command to establish direct video linkage with Santa's workshop colonies embedded covertly beneath us.” General Barker continued. “What I am about to show you all is not some wildly devised hoax or mass hysterical vision folks! Please brace yourselves, this may come as an extraordinary shock."
Right on cue, the dozen large monitors mounted overhead suddenly flickered from displaying ominous meteor radar trajectory maps over to revealing what looked like bustling high-tech complex of tunnels, facilities, and ultra-modern machinery.
Hundreds of miniature elf-like humanoids in uniformly colored jumpsuits were operating miles of snaking conveyor belts. The motorized belts carried millions of colorfully wrapped gifts and packages streaming alongside towards endless rows of loading platforms and hangar bays which held... magic flying reindeer sleighs?!
Then framed center-screen now beaming his familiar cheerful smile was the mythical figure himself - Santa Claus - peering over mission control room boards laden with comprehensive maps, 3D rendered launch runways, checklist protocols, and countless launch command switches blinkin’!
That iconic bearded face and billowing red coat trimmed in white fur lining was completely unmistakable even for hardcore doubters. It was him alright!
Gasps first morphed into cries of disbelief, then into awed cheers. Adults and kids alike now crowded monitors with looks ranging from shock to delight to tears.
Cameras in the bustling underground elf colonies panned left next revealing Santa’s dedicated wife Mrs. Claus embracing and consoling sobbing families together near an enormous crystalline Christmas tree adorned with radiant multi-colored star ornaments unlike anything ever produced on Earth.
“I knew it! Santa is absolutely 100% real!” Billy screamed with sheer joy, jumping and down with such relief he thought his heart might burst. “I always believed in my heart even when you said I was being silly, Mom!”
After years of his staunch childhood faith wavering under increased peer pressure to outgrow the mythical notion of some magical old man overseeing a flying sleigh delivery operation at the North Pole... here at last was the irrefutable evidence straight from NORAD itself that Santa Claus did indeed exist extraordinarily beyond mere legend or bedside fable!
The tunnels continued beyond the monitors' view it seemed. The sheer scale of the hidden magic cities carved out from beneath the world's surface was simply impossible to fathom. Yet this infinitely powered subterranean holiday hub was somehow real - and North Pole's last best chance for avoiding apocalyptic tragedy.
"Now quickly - we must warn Kringle directly about the incoming threat before time runs out!" General Barker declared as if addressing battle troops. "This could be the very salvation people have prayed for! We all grew up with the stories of Santa's magic being able to transcend the rules of physics and nature unlike anything else. Well by providence or miracle, those childhood stories have manifested truthfully before our eyes when all hope seemed lost! Mr. Claus may represent our only slim chance of intercepting or overriding this imminent meteor catastrophe. So we must brief Santa immediately - Christmas as we know it hangs in the balance!"
So while frantic NORAD technicians rushed to finish calculating potential fragment trajectory splatter maps and impact probabilities across Alaska's vulnerable terrain, the sixty frightened North Pole citizens began crowded around the videoconference monitors together.
Young and old alike now directly pleading to the beloved Saint Nick through magic screens to unleash the full force of his mythological North Pole assets - anything and everything at his disposal - in an effort to offset the impending apocalypse. Given no better option, believers and recently converted skeptics alike all unified in prayer that Santa's magic could transcend even Earth-shattering space boulders.
Meanwhile, back in the bustling underground polar colonies displayed across the dozen videocall monitors, Santa Claus himself along with Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer chief among pulling sleigh teams reviewed dozens of detailed reference maps.
They pointed out the deepest stable glacial ice caverns across the entire Arctic mountain range - prime locations deemed most likely to withstand and contain violent impact shockwaves should fragments shear past initial NORAD countermeasures.
Mrs Claus and her dedicated culinary team took hurried inventory and then swiftly bundled meticulous emergency food ration packs for all North Pole civilians. The packages they prepared seemed enchanted as bottomless bags that would continually manifest essential nutrition sources for many months as needed even if survivors became stranded snowed in. Psychological crisis counselors were also standing by through the video call.
Just over four fateful hours remained until impending meteor landfall somewhere along Alaska's central coastline according to continually updated telemetry.
Yet as the stunned families kept gli