Born in Clarksville, Tennessee, 2004, Jackson Keener had seven years to become accustomed to the world before the ashes of Judgment Day rained down. His mother, Melissa, once a struggling waitress, kept the family together in the years that followed. Of his father – Carl Keener – Jackson knew little; he’d disappeared long before Judgment Day. He had two older brothers, though – Ollie, three years his senior, and Tommy, twelve years his senior.
In the years immediately following Judgment Day, Tommy took on a fatherly role and Jackson came to idolize him. Tommy had been something of a hoodlum before Skynet’s rise – drinking, chasing girls, hotrodding around town, and only occasionally putting in time at the small auto shop he worked at after dropping out of school. Hardship brought out the best in him, though, and he became utterly dedicated to his family in the scarred landscape of post-Judgment Day America. He taught everyone in the family how to drive like the wind and how to keep a car running even with limited resources. Years of dodging the law proved good training for keeping ahead of the roving patrols of Skynet Hunter-Killers. Jackson absorbed everything his brother had to teach, as did his brother Ollie.
Together, the family led a nomadic life, looking for safezones from Terminator patrols and radiation born on the wind, and occasionally joining with other groups of survivors. Their mother looked to keeping food in their bellies and keeping the Lord alive in their hearts. A lifelong Southern Baptist, she held onto her faith as one of the few sources of hope in the barren landscape. The Keener family even took in the occasional convert. If possible, they’d find pockets of unpolluted water for a baptism, but in a pinch a bottle of Ozarka would do. Because of his faith, Jackson always keeps a tattered copy of the Bible in his backpack, alongside his toolkit and shotgun.
By the time the Keeners found their way into John Connor’s resistance movement, travel had taken its toll on Melissa and she would never regain her youthful strength. To this day she lives, though, a seemingly indomitable matriarchal leader. She took heart when rumors began to circulate that Sarah Connor herself had been a waitress, and like Sarah she refuses to go down without a fight. Her sons, including Jackson, have become a well-regarded scout unit for the Resistance. They scavenge vehicles and other supplies, assist in search and rescues, and periodically serve as drivers during frontline clashes with Terminator units. Some call them Keener’s Rangers, others just “the Keener Boys.”
In the late 2020s, a pivotal time for the Resistance, luck seems to be running out for the Keeners. Middle brother Ollie has recently gone missing and no searches have turned him up. Death or capture seem equally valid, equally grim possibilities, but the Keener family holds out hope. Tommy, the oldest of the boys, took a plasma shot to the leg while on a scouting run, and while the damage may heal in a year or two, for now he’s confined to helping Connor’s men plan. Only Jackson, the youngest, remains on active duty.
Jackson remains ferociously devoted to his family, and just as much to Connor for taking them in when times were at their hardest. Jackson is thin and gawky, with short, unkempt blond hair and a weak chin. Unbeknownst to his family he’s recently begun seeing a Slavic girl who manages supplies for the Resistance – Triska. She has only one arm, having lost the other to Terminators, but Jackson doesn’t mind (“I ain’t the prettiest picture ta look at, either.”) Jackson is very devoted to her, his devotion exceeded only by his need to live up to his family name. And indeed, he’s one of the best drivers in the Resistance, knows how to get most any heap up and running, has an almost sixth sense for danger, and moves fast as a jackrabbit when Skynet turns up the heat. If the Resistance needs someone to get in or out of a bad situation, Jackson will get the job done.
+1 FLEX pt
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