If you want to start a small group, badly equipped and not in good health... it messes with canon a lot of course...
Your party are the crew of a space station, and have remained in orbit many months longer than expected, providing satellite imagery and the last remaining space-based weather reports. They (barely) survived the ASAT weapons launched against them during TDM, but opted not to abandon the station using their emergency reentry vehicle.
Some time ago they debated drawing lots- all but one would kill themselves, leaving one survivor to continue broadcasting for much longer. Even when ordered by ground control NOT to do this, they continued- only when their ground controller threatened to use an ASAT to destroy the station did they agree to continue as a group.
Now they have finally used all their supplies- the station is no longer habitable. With no food, little water and only a few days of air, they must return to Earth, whether to be met by such support crews are available, or simply by picking a target area and setting out. Don't give them a shuttle- far too much space for gear; a smaller capsule such as a Soyuz or Apollo Command Module used as a lifeboat will be far more limiting (although it might be kinder to assume that by the 1990s the Apollo CM has been modified enough to allow a return to land).
After so long in space, the group will have weakened bones, terrible muscle tone and all the other medical issues expected. They will have little or no weapons, although they could conceivably have high-tech stuff invaluable to any T2k settlement- radiation hardened electronics, accurate maps of every nuclear explosion, solar panel arrays, communication lasers (make those as powerful as you like, just don't forget the electrical supply), geiger counters, recycling equipment, even a working laptop with a copy of some useful survival books and encyclopaediae...
As I say, it plays fast and loose with canon, but it would make a whole new type of campaign!
Edited to add: the biggest asset such a group would have would be their overall knowledge of what has happened to the world- only they have the big picture. Alternatively, the party could be a group sent to rescue (or kidnap) such survivors, whether for the boost to national morale, or for the knowledge they possess.
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