Play@YSDC

Z-Day + 1 - 7:37 AM Mountain Time - Warren Air Force Base, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming
In the cafetria-
Major Jackson led Cynthia into the cafeteria in the headquarters building. Various people in uniform were here eating breakfast. Most of them were men, but there were also a decent number of women. When they saw the major enter, they stood to attention and saluted.

"At ease," said Major Jackson, and everyone sat down again. "Everyone, this is Ms. Cynthia Louise, our new entertainment director. She will be organizing festivities that will take place tonight, and she'd like to talk to some of you about what you'd like."

"Umm, hi!" said Cynthia perkily, waving and bouncing her boobs.

In the cafeteria-
The assembled Air Force personnel greeted her in various ways: by saying hello, waving back, and the occasional whistle. They certainly looked enthusiastic, and most of the men seemed attracted to her.

"Well, go ahead and mingle," said Major Jackson. "Ask them whatever you'd like to know. I'm sure they'll be glad to help you out."

Cynthia waves again and winks at the whistlers, playing it up like some of the old singer-starlets of the war years, and walks with quite the sway of the hips toward them. She heads over to one of the all-boy tables, puts her hands down on it and leans forward, "Well, boys, whattaya want?"

In the cafeteria-
The men at the table whooped and applauded. "I wanna dance with you!" one of them said to Cynthia.

She bites her lower lip coyly and gives him a wink. "What about the rest of you fine soldiers? How you wanna R'n'R? I wanna know how soldiers roll!"

In the cafeteria-
"Soldiers are in the Army, ma'am," said one of the men. "We're airmen. And we love to party!"

"How about a talent competition?" suggested another. "Maybe we can get a karaoke machine."

"Aw, man," said a third. "That's the lamest thing I've heard all day."

"It's early yet," said the first one.

"What will there be to drink?" asked a fourth.

"Well, if we can get two rooms, we could have a main room for folk who just want to dance and drink, and a room for the drunk ones to sing," said Cynthia. "Don't see any problem with that." She smiles around at them all. "As for eats and drinks, I'll be talking to one of the cooks soon enough about that."

In the cafeteria-
"Two rooms, yeah, we can swing that," said Major Jackson.

"We're gonna need more girls," said one of the men, the one who had said he wanted to dance with Cynthia. "Most of us are men, and there ain't gonna be enough ladies for us all to dance with. Got any more like you?"

"Umm, maybe, there were others who came in," said Cynthia. "A few more girls. Maybe your big, strong soldier friends might be rescuing more pretty girls as we speak?"

In the cafeteria-
"Maybe that was what that 'special mission' was about," said one of the airmen. "I shoulda volunteered."

"Shh!" hissed another. "We're not supposed to talk about that. Besides, it's never a good idea to volunteer for anything."

Cynthia flashes her pearly whites around the crowd. "Don't worry, guys. I'm happy to dance with everybody. That includes you, ladies!" She strikes a perky pose.

In the cafeteria-
Several of the men whistled, until Major Jackson gave them a look and they quieted down.

"Any more girls that do get rescued would have to go through quarantine before we could get to meet them," said the first airman, "but there's still Cynthia and the others who came in yesterday." He smiled at her.

"Is there anything else you need to ask the people here?" Major Jackson asked Cynthia. "Or are you ready to get to work on the planning?"

OOC,[b]Cynthia[/b], please roll Psychology.

Cynthia is as oblivious as usual. "But this is the planning, I thought," she says, sticking a finger tip in her mouth provocatively as she gazes at him with wide eyes. "Hmm, maybe one of these soldier boys could come and help me plan a little." She says the words like she's Marilyn Monroe.

In the cafeteria-
"Sir, I volunteer, sir!" said the man who had said he'd wanted to dance with Cynthia, springing to his feet. He smirked at the airman who had said they shouldn't volunteer for anything. "Every rule has an exception."

"That's up to the lady, Airman," said Major Jackson. He turned to Cynthia. "This is part of the planning, yes, ma'am, but there's a lot more to it than that. Will this man make a suitable assistant for you?"

Cynthia looks him up and down and decides that his eagerness suits her just fine. She never realised how popular she'd be at an air base. She'd likely be happy for years to come here. She holds out her hand to him. "Yes, sir. He suits me just fine."

In the cafeteria-
The airman took Cynthia's hand as he stood up, shaking it gently. He was a tall, thin man with blond hair and vibrant blue eyes, and he had an excited smile on his face. "A pleasure, ma'am," he said. "I'm Airman Craig Davis."

"Shall we take a look at some possible locations where we can hold the party?" suggested Major Jackson.

Cynthia nods, beaming. "Lead the way!"

She was in Heaven.

In the hallway-
Major Jackson led Cynthia and Craig out of the cafeteria. As they walked down the hall, Craig turned to Cynthia. "You got a boyfriend?" he asked.

"Not anymore," said Cynthia, showing a touch of vulnerability in her suddenly lowered gaze. She didn't feel sad about it. Not exactly. She felt sort of cold in her belly. She didn't want to think about it. "You got a girlfriend?"

In the auditorium-
"Also not anymore," Craig said, lowering his head. "She was KIA yesterday. I'd only been seeing her for a few weeks, but still... I'm not giving up, though. I still believe in love. How about you?"

Major Jackson led the way around a corner and down another corridor to a pair of double doors at the end, which he opened. The three of them entered a large auditorium. A podium stood on a low stage at the far end of the room with a microphone atop it. A large screen, rolled up, was on the rear wall. There was a curtain, currently open, at the front of the stage. Hundreds of chairs arrayed in rows with aisles between them faced the podium. "This room is used for big assemblies with many people," said the major. "It's one of the possibilities. We could clear out the chairs to make room for a dance floor, get some buffet tables in here, and there's already a great A/V system for presentations. What do you think?"

"Sounds good," said Cynthia. "Do we have an actual dance floor because, like, they're made of special materials?"

In the auditorium-
"I think we can scrounge one up," said Major Jackson. "Dances have been held on the base before, but they're smaller affairs than what we're planning. I don't know if we have a dance floor big enough, but maybe we can combine multiple smaller floors. We'll need to check with the Quartermaster to see what we've got."

"And speakers?"

In the auditorium-
"Speakers won't be a problem," said Jackson. "The auditorium already has them for assemblies and the like, and the room has excellent acoustics. Of course, if we're going to have two parties simultaneously, we'll need a secondary room. Doesn't have to be as big as this one, as the second one will be for officers only, and there aren't as many. We'll also need a decent DJ for each party. Would you be any good at that?"

"I still don't know about having two parties at once," says Cynthia. "Unless we'll have another set of two parties tomorrow? I know you've probably got it all figured out but I wouldn't want more than half the men away from their stations or hung over tomorrow."

In the auditorium-
"Hangovers won't be an issue if we don't serve alcohol," said Jackson, "but I see your point. I've already decided to have the parties straddle two shifts, so that anyone on one of those shifts could go during the other one. Those on the third shift could choose either or stay for both. We'll still have enough people on duty in each shift that we won't be short-handed. If a dire emergency crops up that requires all base personnel, we'll just have to cut the parties short and reschedule them, but I'm not expecting anything like that. So far this morning hasn't been as bad as yesterday, so hopefully we're through the worst of it."

"Although..." started Airman Craig Davis, but he stopped when the major looked at him. "Nah, it's probably nothing to worry about."

"What isn't anything to worry about?" asks Cynthia, blinking her big eyes at him.

In the auditorium-
"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing, ma'am," said Craig, glancing over at the major. "Some of the guys are afraid that the Russians are going to nuke us, but they'd probably have done it already if they wanted to. They've got their own problems to worry about."

"Is it happening there as well?" asks Cynthia.

In the auditorium-
"Scuttlebutt is that it's happening everywhere, ma'am," said Craig. "Of course, that might just make the Russian government more unstable, and if they think we caused this..." The major frowned at him, and he shut his mouth.

Cynthia frowned, her forehead creasing cutely. "Why would they think that?" She tilts her pelvis towards him a little.

In the auditorium-
Craig grinned at Cynthia, goofily. "Well, things have been getting worse between us and Russia since Putin took over," he said. "The government there hates our guts and is liable to blame us on principle when things go wrong, especially when it's of this magnitude. I'm too young to remember the Soviet Union even existing, but the CO once said he missed the Cold War, because then at least everyone knew who the enemy is." He noticed the major's glare burning a hole through him and coughed. "But, um, it's nothing that needs to concern us. Either the Russians don't want to nuke us, or they're not capable of it under the circumstances, because we haven't been nuked."

"Shouldn't the world be allies by now?" asked Cynthia. "Are we working with the UK and Australia and things like that? Are all the other countries wiped out?" She paused, allowing tears to spring into her eyes. "I hadn't even thought about the rest of the world!"

In the auditorium-
"We should be, yes," said Craig, "but that's people for you. What's making the problem worse is that we can't communicate with each other any more. The Russkies don't know what we're doing, and we don't know what they're doing. There's still a lot of mistrust, and they could think we caused all this. In fact, the CO probably thinks-"

Major Jackson cleared his throat. "I think we've spent enough time on this," he said, looking over to Cynthia. "Besides, it's disturbing the young lady. Are you all right, Miss?"

OOC,[b]Cynthia[/b], please roll Psychology and Idea.

"Hmm?" asks Cynthia, feigning being distracted to buy some time as she processed the information as she quickly started piecing it all together. Unfortunately she was too distracted by her brainstorm to much notice those around her.

In the auditorium-
"You seemed upset," said the major. "All this talk about what's happened to the world must be too much. Perhaps we should change the subject."

It seemed to Cynthia that Craig had been about to say that the CO thought that the Russians were behind this before Major Jackson interrupted him, probably to stop him from saying precisely that. Craig had been on the verge of opening up a few times, but he didn't seem able to speak freely in front of the officer.

Cynthia nods. "Oh, what were we talking about before again?"

In the auditorium-
"We were discussing our plans for the parties this evening," said Major Jackson. "I was explaining that the parties will overlap two shifts, so that people can come no matter what shift they're on. I'm thinking we should start at 2000 hours - that's 8:00 PM - and wrap up by 0400. Shift change is at midnight."

"Sounds good to me," says Cynthia, slinking her arm through Craig's and giving Craig a poke in his muscular belly. "And if you are going to help me set this up then you're going to owe me a dance."

In the auditorium-
"Hee hee," said Craig in a high-pitched voice, doing an impression of the Pillsbury Dough Boy. "It would be an honor to dance with you, ma'am."

"So, would this room be suitable for tonight?" asked Major Jackson. "We'll still need to take a look at the other venues even if it is, since we need to hold two parties. Since there are many more enlisted personnel than officers, this room would be better for the enlisted since it's one of the few places big enough."

"Uh yeah," says Cynthia. "If you had bigger that'd be great, but this'll do. Got anything for fancy lighting?"

In the auditorium-
"This is an Air Force base," said Major Jackson, "so we have plenty of lights of various colors used for signaling that could be adapted for our purposes. We also have some strobe lights that could be useful. This is probably the biggest room we have available on the base, unless you count the hangars. However, even the ones not in use have various equipment in them, so it would take a lot of effort to clear them out and set things up for tonight."

"Ooh, industrial-tech lighting," said Cynthia. "Should make it a rave!"

In the auditorium-
Major Jackson smiled. "This sort of suggestion is exactly why you're the right person to help organize this event," he said. "I'd never have thought of a rave. I've never even been to one. What sort of music do they play at raves?"

"High energy electronic music, Dub-step, flashing lights and music that has a repetitive but catchy sound that gets inside of your head and really gets your pulse pumping." Cynthia hops up and down, ensuring her boobies bounce, clapping her hands excitedly. She's more excited about pumping Craig for information, but that can wait for now. Unless perhaps she could draw the Major's eye. She flashes him a flirty smile, fluttering her lashes at him to check his reaction. Of course, odds were he was far too disciplined to give way to her feminine wiles.

In the auditorium-
While Major Jackson certainly noticed Cynthia, he was too professional to react. "Do you think that kind of music will be popular with everyone?" he asked. "I don't know if we want to play just rave music the entire night, but perhaps we can have that and other sorts too."

"Some clubs have multiple smaller rooms with different types of music and styles in each one," says Cynthia. "Maybe an idea for the officers? As for the enlisted, I guess a bunch of classics like ACDC mixed in with some metal, dubstep, rave ... all the greatest hits if you know what I mean."

In the auditorium-
"Well, I don't entirely know what you mean," said Major Jackson with a smile. "That's why I'm asking you. Remember, you're a lot younger than me. I'm familiar with AC/DC, but my personal tastes run more towards classical music."

"I get what she's talking about, sir," said Craig. "I was in college not that long ago."

"Thank you, Airman. I'm sure that'll be helpful." He turned back to Cynthia. "Regarding the multiple small rooms, we could put up some dividing screens to section off parts of a large space like this auditorium, though sound will still spill over from one to the next. You're right, the multiple small rooms would work better for the officers, since there aren't as many of us. Shall we go look at some other rooms now?"

"Sounds groovy," says Cynthia perkily. "How many officers are there?"

In the hallway-
"After the casualties we've taken in the last 24 hours," said Major Jackson as he led Cynthia and Craig back out into the hallway, "about a hundred, maybe a little more. Not all of them will be at the officers' party at once, of course, because of shifts. I'd guess we're looking at a maximum of sixty or so at any one time, and probably not even that many."

"What about civilian survivors?" asked Cynthia.

In the hallway-
"That's a good point," said Major Jackson. "There aren't anywhere near as many civilians as there are military, but we do have a number of civilian employees, as well as family members of our personnel living on base. They could really go to either party, depending on who they want to go with. I'd guess there are around a thousand civilians left, and about ninety percent of them will be going to the enlisted party. So we can expect a total of two hundred at the officers' party, though again that'll be spaced out, so probably not much more than half that at the busiest times."