Odessa Cubbage

"Colonel Odessa Cubbage at your service!"

- Odessa Cubbage

Colonel Odessa Cubbage is a Resistance leader situated at the eponymous outpost, New Little Odessa. When Gordon Freeman passes through on his journey along the Coast, Cubbage can be seen in the main building's basement explaining the use of the RPG to a group of gathered rebels, before handing the weapon to Gordon for use in an ensuing Gunship battle.

Background
Judging from his distinct Received Pronunciation accent, Cubbage is likely English.

His status of being an actual "colonel" is questionable, as it seems unlikely that twenty years prior he held that rank as an army position. Creating further doubt is the fact that his jacket reads "Security" on the back, and also features the University of Rochester Security Services crest on the shoulder. More than likely he was appointed the position of Colonel after the Seven Hour War, later becoming an important military leader for the Resistance.

Half-Life 2
Odessa Cubbage leads a small Resistance base, named after him as New Little Odessa, in a coastal region outside of City 17. Cubbage is first mentioned in the chapter "We Don't Go To Ravenholm...", when Leon tries to contact him from Shorepoint. When Gordon Freeman arrives at New Little Odessa en route to Nova Prospekt, he is directed by a Resistance fighter into the basement of a building, where Cubbage is briefing members on the use of the rocket launcher against Combine Gunships. Looking for a volunteer to test it, and spotting Gordon, Cubbage hands him the weapon and gives him a quick tutorial on using the launcher's laser guide and how it can allow for the rockets to be steered past the defenses of a Gunship.

After the Gunship fight, with the base saved from defeat, Odessa Cubbage sends Freeman on his way, telling members of his team to open the gate allowing Gordon to travel further along the coast. He also warns Freeman that since a base near the bridge on the way to Nova Prospekt, Bridge Point, has maintained radio silence, it is probably under Combine control. Cubbage can be last seen communicating via radio to Lighthouse Point, another Resistance base on Gordon's journey to Nova Prospekt. His fate after Gordon's visit, and after the events of Half-Life 2, remains unknown.

Before arriving at New Little Odessa, Cubbage can be seen speaking with the G-Man by looking towards the base through Combine Binoculars on the opposite end of the bay. This has sparked theories that the G-Man may have aided the resistance team in some way, in the form of a warning prior to the attack, or even by supplying rocket launchers. However, the G-man's visit is never mentioned whilst Gordon is there, and there is no conclusive evidence supporting his assistance.

Half-Life 2: Episode One
In Half-Life 2: Episode One, Alyx refers to Odessa by sarcastically claiming that he is her father after a rebel asks "You're Kleiner's daughter, right?".

Later, some rebels can be overheard talking about how they once met Odessa and that they've come to the conclusion that he's an idiot. Other rebels will occasionally refer to him by asking Gordon if he was there when Cubbage took down the first Combine gunship, suggesting, perhaps, that Odessa took the credit for Gordon's help. Cubbage is also referred to in past tense by at least one rebel; implying he is dead at this time.

Behind the scenes

 * Cubbage's model, based on the martial arts instructor for one of the game's developers, was originally intended for Odell, the cut Borealis engineer.


 * The image preview for the retail Odessa model shows an early model with a "refugee" Citizen body, and a beige shirt, changed to his Rochester jacket seen in the final game.


 * With Barney, Odessa Cubbage fills the military leader role originally intended for Captain Vance.


 * In the playable Half-Life 2 Beta, a generic citizen named "RPGGuy" appears at New Little Odessa. Interestingly, three extremely early voice clips for Odessa can be found in the  folder, but there is no model for him. In these clips, he has a much younger, nasal voice.


 * There are several obvious similarities between Cubbage and Colonel Rodney Crittendon from the sixties television show Hogan's Heroes. Besides sharing their rank and British nationality, both possess a comically inflated self-image and are widely perceived by their soldiers to be conceited fools.  Cubbage's appearance is also remarkably similar to Crittendon's, most notably the shared curled mustache.


 * Originally, Odessa Cubbage was to pick up the grenade launcher when the gunship arrived, show the player how to fight it, before being killed. But this proved to be a sticky tangle, and the team instead decided to have him remain in the basement the entire sequence, eventually leading to him being a royal coward.


 * Series' writer Marc Laidlaw originally found the name Odessa Cubbage in his spam filter, and thought that it carried quite a character with it, leading him to replace the RPG guy with a standalone character named Odessa Cubbage. He also stated that Cubbage exists solely to give the player a rocket launcher.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One