Odessa Cubbage


 * "Colonel Odessa Cubbage, at your service" - Odessa Cubbage

Colonel Odessa Cubbage is a minor character who made a brief appearance in the Highway 17 (Chapter 7) level of Half-Life 2. Cubbage is part of the Resistance against the Combine, speaking in distinct Received Pronunciation. He wears a jacket with emblems on it indicating that he was possibly once a security officer as part of the University of Rochester Security Services. According to Raising the Bar, his model was based on the martial arts instructor for one of the game's developers.

Half-Life 2
Odessa Cubbage leads a small Resistance base and town, dubbed New Little Odessa, in a coastal region outside City 17. Cubbage is first mentioned in the chapter We don't go to Ravenholm, when Leon tries to contact him from Shorepoint. He often made outlandish claims of heroism, such as serving with Rudyard Kipling and being a Bengal Tiger despite the fact that is obviously too young to have done either. When Gordon Freeman arrives at New Little Odessa en route to Nova Prospekt, he is directed by a resistance fighter into a 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's arrival, Cubbage hands him the weapon and gives him a quick tutorial on using the launcher's laser guide and steering it past the defenses of a Combine Gunship. Shortly afterward, a Gunship approaches, and Freeman quickly downs it.

With the base saved from defeat, Odessa Cubbage sends him on his way, by allowing members of his team to open a gate, thus allowing Gordon to travel further along the coast. He also warns Freeman that since a base near the bridge used to go 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 where Gordon will have to abandon his dune buggy and resume his journey to Nova Prospekt on foot. His fate after Gordon's visit, and Half-Life 2, remains unknown.

Before arriving at New Little Odessa, Cubbage can be spotted speaking with the G-Man as the player views the base through a Combine Spotting Scope, sparking theories that the G-Man may have aided the resistance team in some way, in the form of a warning of the impending Combine gunship assault, or even the supply of rocket launchers.

Much of Cubbage's self-proclaimed history is questioned by his companions. His slightly askew mustache suggests it isn't real, and many resistance members believe his British accent, along with his supposed military accomplishments, is fake. He is also known to remain in his basement headquarters during any times of danger, preferring to give orders to others and never personally exposing himself to any actual harm.

Half-Life 2: Episode One
In Half-Life 2: Episode One, Alyx makes a reference to Odessa, 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 occasionally also reference him by asking Gordon if he was there when Cubbage took down the first Combine gunship, implying Odessa took the credit for Gordon's work.

Behind the scenes
Odessa's model was originally intended for a character named "Odell" (or "Owen") in Half-Life 2. Odell was the engineer of a science ship-vessel that was stranded in the sea. In the behind-the-scenes book Raising the Bar, it is not made clear if the sea was drained by Combine forces, thus stranding the ship, or if the boat was locked in ice. Odell was the only remaining crew member of the ship, called the Borealis, and was the leader of a small group of rebels that Gordon would meet. In the final cut of the game, Odessa remained the leader of a group of rebels, but his backstory was removed.