Gina Cross

"You look good in orange!"

- Security guard

Dr. Gina Cross is a Black Mesa scientist who first appears as the holographic assistant for Gordon Freeman in the Black Mesa's Hazard Course and then later as one half of the protagonist team involved in the Black Mesa Incident in Half-Life: Decay.

Background


Cross is a 31 year old Research Associate and Hazardous Environment Supervisor with Level 4 security clearance. She is the senior physicist assigned to anomalous materials handling at the Anomalous Materials Laboratory at the Black Mesa Research Facility.

She graduated from Caltech, has a Ph.D. in applied physics and masters the bioengineering and mechanical engineering fields as well. Gina's HEV Suit is tan colored.

As suggested by the handwritten notes added by Gina in the Hazard Course Training schedule from the Half-Life PlayStation 2 instruction manual, her job as Hazardous Environment Supervisor probably involves supervising the Hazard Course trainings, among other things. She is also one of the several scientists to train other scientists in the Hazard Course. When their work requires her to be elsewhere in the facility, she is replaced by her holographic counterpart.

As seen in the Hazard Course Training schedule from the Half-Life PlayStation 2 instruction manual, several trainings are planned before, during and after the Black Mesa Incident. Two are directly related to Cross as instructor: on May 13, 200- at 10:00, she instructs Walter Bennet for an Anti-Mass Spectrometer Overload Simulation; on May 13, 200- at 07:30, day of the incident, her hologram instructs Gordon Freeman for an HEV Suit training. Another is related to her as the trainee: on May 15, 200- at 20:00, she tests a Mark V HEV Suit prototype under the supervision of Richard Keller. It is unknown how this is related, if at all, to Gordon Freeman's Mark V suit in Half-Life 2.

Half-Life
In the Half-Life Hazard Course, she is seen as the holographic assistant preparing Gordon Freeman for any possible disaster in his job as a research associate.

Before the Resonance Cascade, the Black Mesa Announcement System in Sector C mentions her by saying "Dr. Cross, call 729 please.".

Half-Life: Opposing Force
Gina makes a cameo in Opposing Force. At some point, Adrian Shephard is allowed to use the Displacer to transport himself to the original Hazard Course, where Gina's hologram counterpart is still running. Interestingly, the course is full of Vortigaunts, who attack the hologram but can not damage it.

Half-Life: Blue Shift
In Blue Shift, Cross is seen in a small cameo appearance. Barney Calhoun can go to the video surveillance room and use a ceiling mounted video camera to watch her deliver the GG-3883 crystal sample.

Her HEV suit in this is colored orange, not tan, as it is the original  model used for the Half-Life Hazard Course. It is unknown why the "Gina" model was not used.

Half-Life: Decay


In Decay, Cross is the one who delivers the GG-3883 crystal sample to the delivery system and then heads to an area below the test chamber, where Colette Green is stationed, to fix a jam in the lift that allows the specimen to be delivered up to Gordon. After the Resonance Cascade occurs, Cross teams up with Dr. Green to battle their way through the now alien-infested facility. They first escort Rosenberg to the surface to contact the military, and then under the guidance of Richard Keller, they succeed in starting a resonance reversal to help lessen the effects of the dimensional rift.

Gina Cross' fate, along with the rest of the survivors in Decay, remains unknown to the other Black Mesa survivors.

During the course of the game, the holographic assistant is again seen when the players are required to cut through the destroyed remains of the Hazard Course to reach the surface.

Personality and skills
As heard in Decay, Gina is a pragmatic person, with calm manners, as opposed to her partner Colette, a jumpier person.

Behind the scenes

 * Although initially only a non canon female scientist player model for Half-Life Deathmatch simply named " ", she was retconned in Half-Life: Decay as a standalone character alongside Colette Green and the woman who gave her likeness to the Hazard Course's holographic assistant, while the name "Cross" was first mentioned by the Black Mesa public announcement system at the start of Half-Life. Therefore Cross was created like Barney Calhoun, Walter Bennet or Otis Laurey, from being a generic model with a generic first name to a standalone character with a surname.


 * The holographic assistant model seen in Half-Life and Blue Shift actually appears as an older woman with brown eyes, while Cross is a young, blue-eyed woman. In fact, the model originally had the face of a blue-eyed young woman and bun pins in the hair, which fits Cross' features and the Half-Life Deathmatch  models which the Decay model is based on, but it was replaced by an older face for some reason. The Decay model for the holographic instructor was however remade as a retcon to fit Gina's likeness (although the bun pins are missing in its hair). Furthermore, while Cross' appearance was based on the "Gina" model from Half-Life Deathmatch, only the HD version features the bun pins in the hair.


 * Gina's age is incorrectly stated in the instruction manual to be "25".


 * When playing Half-Life: Decay as Gina, the HUD is in grey, while Colette's is in the standard Half-Life yellow.


 * Gina is voiced by Kathy Levin, both as the holographic assistant in Half-Life and as Gina herself in Decay. The Decay dialogs merely consist of gameplay sentences similar to the ones said by security guards. Levin also provided the female voice for the Black Mesa Announcement System, suggesting Cross herself might have recorded it, although this might just be related to game limitations.


 * "Gina" is the diminutive form of Georgina, Regina, Luigina, and other names ending in "-gina". It can also be used as a diminutive of Virginia or Eugenia. It was popularized in the 1950s by Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, whose birth name was Luigina. "Cross" is a locative surname obviously related to the cross. It denoted one who lived near a cross symbol, or near a crossroad.


 * Although the outcome for Cross, along with the rest of the survivors in Decay, is unknown, a body resembling hers can be found in Opposing Force by Adrian Shephard, in one of the Displacer's Xen teleport destinations. The actual model name for this body is  (a Half-Life Deathmatch player model), which would suggest that the corpse truly belongs to Cross, "Gina" being her first name and the model existing since the release of Half-Life (and not Colette Green, since only the environment light is making the HEV suit look maroon, while it is clearly orange and beige). However, this possible retcon has yet to be made by Valve or Gearbox, since Gina Cross did not exist as a real character before Decay, released two years after Opposing Force, and that her fate is merely stated as being "unknown".

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Day One
 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life PlayStation 2 instruction manual
 * Half-Life: Uplink
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay