ISS Crew
- AFFILIATION
- International Space Station mission
Profile
Joey Washington and two fellow astronauts are aboard the crippled International Space Station when the Christmas Eve assault begins. From orbit they watch North America and Europe fall into darkness and see bright flashes bloom across the Indian subcontinent before the station crisis forces evacuation. Their planned landing geometry points toward Kazakhstan, putting the crew’s survival problem on the opposite side of the world from Joey’s family in Virginia.
Before and entering the war
PREWAR FILE // The crew begins inside a highly procedural international spaceflight mission. Their crisis is uniquely unforgiving: they cannot improvise a road route, walk home, or immediately join the ground fight. Orbital mechanics, vehicle condition, landing plans, and crew survival dictate the first moves.
What this character or entity does in the story
The ISS crew provides the opening war with its widest possible viewpoint. While civilians see lights fail locally, the astronauts can see continental-scale darkness and flashes from orbit. The crew also imposes discipline on Joey’s personal desperation because she must survive and evacuate with two crewmates before she can attempt to reconnect with her family.
Capabilities and constraints
Professional spaceflight operations, emergency procedures, crew coordination, spacecraft evacuation, and decision-making under severe technical uncertainty. Individual specialties of the two unnamed crewmates remain compartmented.
Notable actions and decisions
Observe the continental blackout and strategic flashes from orbit; respond to a crippled station; initiate evacuation; commit to a Kazakhstan landing path despite the catastrophe unfolding below.
Key relationships and operational links
JOEY WASHINGTON // Named crew member whose family connection makes the evacuation personally urgent.
GROUND CONTROL / NATIONAL SYSTEMS // Systems the crew would ordinarily rely on are compromised by the same global attack visible below.
KAZAKHSTAN LANDING ZONE // Their immediate terrestrial objective, far from Joey’s family in Virginia.
Associated personnel & entities
How the file changes through the conflict
Routine orbital mission → eyewitnesses to global attack → crew aboard a crippled station → emergency evacuation toward Kazakhstan → surviving crewmates entering a transformed world.
Why this dossier matters
EYES ONLY // The two unnamed crewmates should remain a crew file until reliable names or individual arcs surface. Splitting them into invented people would add false precision. As a unit, however, they are essential because Joey’s choices are constrained by professional responsibility to other human beings, not just by her desire to get home.