Odessa Cubbage

"Colonel Odessa Cubbage, at your service!"

- Odessa Cubbage

Colonel Odessa Cubbage is a Resistance leader who made a brief appearance in the Half-Life 2 chapter Highway 17.

Biography
According to his distinct Received Pronunciation accent, Cubbage is likely of British ascent, though he porobably poshes his accent a bit to stand out.

The idea that he is a "Colonel" at all is in question. It seems unlikely that twenty years prior he held that rank in a regular army that he uses today, but he does carry himself as a Colonel; staying out of harms way as he radios for help. Shedding further doubt is the fact that his jacket reads "Security" on the back, and the University of Rochester Security Services crest on the shoulder. The jacket was probably scavenged as to look like an authority figure, unless he was a campus officer, and he somehow was able to take it all the way to Eastern Europe intact. Still, on the left breast of the jacket are medals pinned, which could suggest service, although the ribbons being on an non military jacket are peculiar. But like his jacket, it could have been something he found.

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. 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 Scout Car and resume his journey to Nova Prospekt on foot. His fate after Gordon's visit, and Half-Life 2, remains unknown. Being apart of the Resistance, he would have known about the state of the Citadel, giving enough time and space to escape safely, but his fate remains in speculation.

Before arriving at New Little Odessa, Cubbage can be spotted speaking with the G-Man as the player views the base through a Combine Binoculars, 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. The G-Man could have put Cubbage in a different mental state, as to forget their meeting happened. No one brings up seeing him, and no one asks where Cubbage got the weapon from.

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?", mirroring somehow the early stages of Half-Life 2’s production when she was to be the daughter of another military man, Captain Vance.

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


 * "Odessa" is a feminine surname derived from the name of the Ukrainian town Odessa, as well as the feminine form of "Odysseus".


 * 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.


 * 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 Critendon's, including the curled moustache.

List of appearances

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