The incoming enemy fleet had none of their reservations about whether the vessels that they saw were truly the enemy. They began firing before they were even through the portal, which was met with the return fire of the Arisen fleet.
The Darklings were holding back for the moment, letting the Cathedral Ships move forward so that the devilishly fast interceptors of the Darkling fleet could swarm them and tear them apart at the first sign of a shield breach.
The drone ships waited a carefully measured two seconds before joining the fight, their programmed attempt to make it look like they were human piloted, with a command lag. There would be no more of that after the start of the battle, but sometimes that delay at the start was just enough to put the enemy off guard.
[No Antimatter weapons.] Max reminded them.
They wanted the Greater Energy Being to come out into this layer where they could properly tear it apart and not wound it, then let it flee.