A Very Special Haloday* Special

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the skies,
Our defenses were up, with electronic eyes.
Combat pilots were nestled in ready-room beds,
As Covenant silhouettes danced in their heads.

Every bird on the tarmac, each SAM in its tube,
T'was triply-redundant, linked to the AI cube,
And Shortswords and Longswords gave coverage so dense
That nothing Covenant could slip through our defense.

When out of the klaxon arose such a clatter
I dashed to the screen to see what was the matter!
I increased the gain and then, quick as a flash,
Fine-adjusted the filters to damp out the hash.

And there found the source of the warning we'd heeded:
An incoming blip, by eight escorts preceded.
"Alert status red!" The AI sent the word down the wire,
As we gave every weapon the codes that meant "FIRE!"

On Hornet! Up Longsword, Reaver and 'Hawk,
And scramble our fighters--let's send the whole flock!
Launch decoys and missiles, fire up the Wolverines!
Get the kitchen sink up! Call out the Marines!

They turned toward the target, moved toward it, converged.
Till the tracks on the radar all finally merged,
And the sky was lit up with a demonic light,
As the foe met his fate in the high arctic night.

So we sent out some recon to look for debris,
Yet all that they found, both on land and on sea
Were some toys, a red hat, a charred left leather boot,
Broken sleigh bells, white hair, and a deer's parachute.

Now it ain't quite Christmas, with Kris Kringle shot down.
There are unhappy kids in each city and town.
For the Spirit of Christmas can't hope to evade
All the web of defenses we've carefully made.

But wait! A crash program's on: Working hard, night and day,
All the elves are constructing a radar-proof sleigh!

So let's wait for next Christmas, in cheer and in health,
For the future has hope: Santa's coming by stealth!

A/N: I think I know an entire AFB that's going to get skipped over next year... maybe they can use the coal to heat their barracks.

Not much more to add, other than Merry Christmas!

*I'm so shameless when it comes to puns.