Leader of Clone Star Empire - East Benito Clone is trying to block the emergency orders for new warships, mostly because it will cut into the HCS procurement budget for other programmes. "If Captain Clone wants more ships because of his fiasco involving the Xenon then let him pay for them themselves, not from our slice of the HCS budget!"
It is rumoured that diverting funds to the new ship orders may mean a number of other weapon procurement programmes are delayed including 500 new Tapirs for CSE-E. It is likely Benito will demand some concessions in return for allowing the emergency orders to go through. It is well known that he is keen for the second CSM battery after Cloneworld is located on Austini 55 and not another planet in CSE-W as is currently planned.
