Jensen was born in Providence, Rhode Island a scant few months before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an event that would affect his life only indirectly, but affect it nonetheless when his father, an Army soldier, was sent to Vietnam in 1968. Among those children fortunate to have their father return, Jensen was entranced from with young age with the notion of the U.S. Army as protectors of the oppressed and strove to follow in his father's footsteps. Roy purposefully made this task as difficult as possible, going so far as to augment his mechanic training with a college degree in the hopes that his son would not turn out just like him. It worked only in part, because while Jensen did not join the Army at age 18, he still joined after first receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in, of all things, Applied Linguistics, at age 22.
Although he was (mostly) fiercely independent, Jensen nevertheless did well in the Army, where a kind of charisma and quick study ability earned him trust among his comrades and before long seeing him wearing the black beret of an Army Ranger. His first true test came in 1989 during the invasion of Panama as part of Operation Just Cause, in which his capabilities were noticed by certain Army officials. When Jensen was next deployed, it was during Operation Desert Storm as part of the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, better known as Delta Force. The next major action he saw after that was in Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope, and later the ill-fated Operation Gothic Serpent. After this operation, Jensen retired from the Army for a quieter civilian life, understanding why his father hadn't stayed in the service after he'd left Vietnam. Without a "real" degree and with no desire to teach, Jensen began working in his father's automotive and machine shop, at least until he decided where he wanted to take his life.
The decision was, in part, made for him when one of the shop's customers asked Jensen out for coffee. The date took something of an unexpected turn when his date (under the pseudonym "Sally") revealed a surprising depth of knowledge regarding his education and military career. Playing it cool, Jensen worked his words carefully in an attempt to convince her that she'd mistaken him for someone else, and while it failed, she nevertheless admitted she was impressed with how easily he'd worked up an alternate history for himself on the spot, and asked him a question that changed his life forever. "Have you ever thought about working for the CIA?" Although he'd left the military behind, Jensen wasn't completely satisfied with a "quiet civilian life" and accepted. By 1996, Jensen had "officially" found a use for his degree, having joined with a research program that did most of its work abroad. In reality, the Agency's Special Activities Division added a new callsign to its roster, the "King of Swords", and Jensen's life as a Paramilitary Operations Officer began.
For five years, he enjoyed his new career, but 2001 when the World Trade Centers were destroyed (due in large part to a series of intelligence failures), Jensen began to question whether or not he'd fallen into the right line of work. Despite this, he stuck it out, assisting with operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and later performing intelligence in Southeast Asia. 2006 was a year of ill-portent, for shortly after the eclipse blocked out the sun, the unthinkable happened and his father fell ill. Reasoning that it was probably inevitable given his age, Jensen decided that it might be time to retire from his life as a spy to take care of his father (his siblings all had "real" jobs, and his mother had passed away a few years earlier; he was the only one left). He took control of his father's shop only to make sure all of its papers were in order; after more than thirty years of operation, it was time to close the doors for good.
Life continued in a mostly uneventful fashion until November of the same year, when the bomb exploded in New York City, marking the second event that made Jensen question whether or not he had made the right decision. A second intelligence failure of an even greater magnitude seemed impossible, and as the country fought to keep from imploding, Jensen felt increasingly lost in a world that seemed to be going insane. In February, Senator Nathan Petrelli made headlines by announcing the existence of the Evolved to the world. Jensen had an answer to what was wrong with the world, but at the same time, he had a question for his father, asking exactly how it was that Roy had managed to remain fit throughout the years, well past the age where he should have been showing signs of it. Roy answered that he was probably one of those "special" people, and that his ability was probably what brought him (and several of his buddies) out of Vietnam alive. At least, that was the case until the eclipse; it felt like someone just switched him off, and that was that. The next day, Roy decided that it was finally time to move on, and asked Jensen to get his estate in order so he could go in peace.
Even several weeks after the revelation, Jensen still felt lost, not because he didn't have answers, but because he didn't know what to do with them. The Agency never informed him about the Evolved, and if anyone should have known about it, it was them. Maybe it was just easier to ignore the problem. Ignoring it was something that Jensen couldn't do however, and once he brought his own affairs in order, he stepped into a cab one day and was never heard from again. A smuggler he was on semi-friendly terms with brought him to Europe, where he followed up on rumor after heresay until he came into contact with the underground organization known as Vanguard. Feeling that he could do more to protect the world from outside the law than inside it, he bought into Vanguard's ideals (although the "deal with the Evolved who pose a threat to the world" that convinced him to join was considerably ambiguous and whitewashed compared to reality) and signed on, quickly climbing the ranks and becoming an operational leader in South America.
Operations went well for a little over a year, until whispers starting working their way through the ranks about "troubles" within the New York arm. Information was scarce to practically everyone, but with his extensive Delta and CIA background, Jensen was able to get in contact with the right people to pull together the "big picture." Unfortunately, his idea of the big picture didn't include the kind of collateral damage he was finding out about. Acting quickly, Jensen started planning, and by mid-January, 2009, he had managed to set up new identities and bank accounts (including several thousand dollars of "pocket money") for everyone working under him, and not a moment too soon. By the end of the month, everything literally blew up in Vanguard's face, concluding with several arrests and the death of the organization's leader, Kazimir Volken. Giving the word, Jensen scattered his underlings to the four winds before the heat was on them; all of them managed to avoid being arrested, and for the most part, were able to start their lives over.
This wasn't the end for Jensen, however. The message of Vanguard, the one he'd been led to believe was at the core of the organization, still resonated strongly within him. Of all countries, the United States was the worst off, especially considering the mess in New York City and the large Evolved population there. Vanguard, he concluded, was a good idea, but because of Volken's personal desires, it suffered from "mission creep" as it slowly strangled itself. But from what he knew, he wasn't the only one who thought that it was getting out of control. Moving himself (as well as a sizable stockpile of "recovered" weaponry) to NYC, where the beast itself he been struck a fatal blow, he started looking for those few members that had survived the organization's implosion.
In the wake of Vanguard's death, New York has grown complacent with its tumors. The city needs a wake-up call.
