A former South African "recce," Cross was dishonorably discharged for reasons that were not disclosed (and which he refuses to discuss). He spent the next decade as a mercenary, relishing the opportunity to engage in combat without the restrictions that come with military service. Eventually, Cross became dissatisfied with the caliber of criminal he was working for: he resented his employers' lack of understanding of strategy and tactics, and felt that his skills were not properly appreciated. On an assignment to raid a weapons cache, Cross and his men encountered a team of Swift's mercenaries who had been dispatched for the same purpose. The two mercenary groups exchanged fire, and the resulting battle left Cross the only survivor. Leaving the weapons behind, he tracked the other mercenaries' path back to their extraction point and hijacked the waiting helicopter. After interrogating the pilot, Cross realized that Alea would make an ideal refuge from the wide variety of enemies he had made during his time as a soldier for hire. Upon arriving, he requested an audience with Swift, who quickly recognized that Cross could be of great use to his efforts. Cross quickly became Swift's most trusted mission commander and now spends most of his time planning and coordinating Alea's more combat-oriented endeavors, as well as training the citizens between missions.

I wanted a very simple, clean design for this guy. It might be too simple and too clean, but I kind of like it. I had planned to use the head for an enemy military leader for a while now, and this seemed like a good opportunity to put it to work.