Keith Remadra, former chief advisor to the UNP Security Council on Clone affairs (I wrote the bulk of this piece before the news that broke today of yet another sale of powerful warships to an Eritran fleet, it helps underline what i am writing below).
The Eastern chunk of the Clone Star Empire has for a long time been the "red-headed step child" of the empire. Isolated from the rest of the empire and led by Benito, a Clone despised by Oojok and his cabal. Now Benito has gone Oojok can no longer treat the CSE-E as "over there, out of care" (to use a Clone expression).
The problem for Oojok is that there is a looming threat on CSE-E's border, not from the Utrek but from the Free Eritran States. These Eritrans led by Molab have not disguised their desire to kick the Clones out of the CSE-E which was built on the old Eritran Trade Federation which the Clones invaded and crushed in the late 2090s.
The Free Eritran States were then isolated Eritran colonies with no military power or influence but over the years they have built their economies and bought heavily in military potential and recently have become major DDS allies with access to the latest weapon technologies.
If we look at the near future (mid-2115 say) then the Free Eritran States could field a formidable fleet headed by 2 Yel'Temas, 6 Isometrics and 18 Pentekonters backed up by over 20 updated Kalahati Tuuls. Such a fleet would take some stopping especially as the CSE-E has tended to be where CDF cuts have been felt first and hardest.
Now the Eritran amphibious and land forces have lagged behind somewhat so they would be unlikely to beat the Clones even if they swept the fleet away. The Clones would be able to hold out until reinforcements came but the Eritran fleet is now powerful enough that many consider it superior to the CSE-E fleet it is up against.
Will the Eritrans attack? I think they want to, but not before 2120. They have virtually no ground attack or amphibious capability plus their TPMs depend on DDS codes which would likely be withdrawn if the Eritrans launched a surprise attack. The problem for the Clones is that they will now forced to strengthen their fleet and defences in CSE-E and at a time of fragile Clone economic growth and defence budget pressures that is not something they want to have to do right now.
