The sound of the pot being smacked a few times cut through the silence, but only minimally. It was always important to maintain light and noise discipline in this small group of survivors, and Connor at least had this training ingrained into him, which was congratulated by silence from Cruse. Cyrek Krusek, as his full name went, was never one to speak too loudly of his complaints, unless it was putting someone else in their place for complaining. He was never one to brag or congratulate people profusely. He was a great embodiment of the quiet professional that the military prized so much. It was unfortunate that he left, as he was being considered for more advanced training, in the forms of earning a commission and Special Operation Forces. But, he decided to leave for a PMC job with the hopes of getting better pay. 

Cruse had been instructing a few of the children with firearms. He enjoyed training people, though sometimes frustrated if someone could not do something correctly. He still enjoyed teaching other people something that had been a large part of his life for so long and nowadays, remained so. It was also essential for defending Redwood. Cruse was also surprisingly good with kids. He had not always been so, but in his deployments he had been around a lot of children and found himself doing babysitting duty. He even went and took care of kids and mothers at those support groups for military families with deployed service members. As cold and highly trained a fighter as he was, that was not all there always was to military service, and he gained rank for many reasons, one of them being his volunteer work for the family support groups. 

He respected many of the elder, but he was not one to like officers or politicians. Politicians were mostly despised by him. As much as he didn't like officers, he disliked insurgents and disloyal degenerates far more. He might have been known for hating officers, but he would never be known for being disloyal. He would respect Connor as his leader, but would always make sure he was aware of the large difference in training between the two.

Cruse assembled up with the rest, assuring the children that he would be back to finish their lessons and make sure they were good with firearms. He walked up to the group and presented himself in the large space between Durrell and some of the other members. Cruse spotted a young man on guard duty vacating his post to pay more attention to Connor's assembly. Cruse's response was quick as he captured the young man's attention, and gave furious hand signals for him to keep focus on his duty. Somehow, it worked and the young man was back to focusing on his duty and Cruse was back to waiting for everyone to gather around, so Connor could give the briefing.