It went without saying, the pale race was filled with intelligent individuals. It was because of this fact that they were able to rise to power before, and fell from their peak simply because of bad luck.
Everyone knew this, and yet, they couldn't help underestimating them. After all, they were smart, but intelligence without strength was nothing but a way of avoiding death for a while.
So when the war between the Kepler civilization and the Pale Race began, pretty much everyone on the Kepler side didn't worry too much about it. After all, to them, the Pale Race was no different from an old man who was incredibly powerful in his peak, but had now weakened due to his age. So they didn't really put the Pale Race in their eyes.