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"I'll keep you covered." ―Gina Cross[src]

Dr. Gina Cross was 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.

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Biography

Background

Cross is a 25-year old [2] Research Associate and Hazardous Environment Supervisor with Level 4 security clearance.[1][2] 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,[1] has a Ph.D. in applied physics[1] and masters the bioengineering and mechanical engineering fields as well.[2] 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,[2] to which she gave her appearance and for which she recorded the instructions.

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 16, 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.[2] It is unknown how this is related, if at all, to Gordon Freeman's Mark V suit in Half-Life 2.

Appearances

Half-Life

In the Half-Life Hazard Course set in Sector A's Training Facility, 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 Cannon 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. She also appears in an alien chamber, which can also be discovered through the Displacer Cannon, wherein her dead body can be seen, using her multiplayer corpse model.

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 holo.mdl 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, was initially presumed unknown.[3] However, it has been confirmed that Gina died during the Black Mesa Incident, and that the corpse seen in Opposing Force’s alien chamber is indeed hers.[4]

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

Gina Cross stems from the model " gina.mdl ". It can be found in the "female" bodypart of "player.mdl" in the Half-Life: Day One files, the "male" bodypart being Gordon, already with blue eyes and bun pins in the air. "Player.mdl" was originally used both as Gordon and the Gina, or the Holographic Assistant. The Day One files also contain two small avi files, "gordon.avi" and "gina.avi", consisting of a higher resolution version of this "male" / "female" player model turning on itself, but with the HEV Suit helmet in their hands. That Gina model was also probably to be used for Half-Life Deathmatch. The bun pins are missing from the Half-Life Deathmatch model " gina.mdl ", but they are featured in its HD version. Overall, that generic "gina" model 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,[1] 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.

For some reason, the Holographic Assistant model seen in Half-Life and Blue Shift actually appears as an older woman with brown eyes, reusing the face texture of the Day One model, with changes to make her appear older (and clearly named "olderface.bmp", while the young face is simply named "face.bmp). The Decay model for the Holographic Assistant was however remade as a retcon to fit Gina's likeness, although the bun pins in the hair are missing.

When playing Half-Life: Decay as Gina, the HUD is in grey, while Colette's is red to match their HEV suits.

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. With Colette and Alyx Vance, Gina is the only playable character that talks during gameplay.

In Decay, the security guards say six sentences to Gina and Colette when idle, as seen in the game files. Two of them are "I like you in orange!" and "The orange in that suit really brings out your eyes!".[5] While their suit is not orange in Decay, it originally was.[6]

"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.[7] "Cross" is a locative surname obviously related to the cross. It denoted one who lived near a cross symbol, or near a crossroad.[8]

Gina's body can be found in Opposing Force by Adrian Shephard, in one of the Displacer's Xen teleport destinations.[9][10] The actual model name for this body is gina.mdl (a Half-Life Deathmatch player model). Gina Cross did not exist as a real character before Decay, released two years after Opposing Force, and her fate was previously stated as being "unknown".[3] However, it has been later confirmed that the corpse truly belongs to Gina Cross, indicating that she perished during the Black Mesa Incident.[4]

Gallery

List of appearances