The first-rank had been extremely arrogant before, but after Link's strong statement, they had a 180-degree change. There was obviously more to this.
The wasteland Expeditionary Force had never come into contact with the first-order before. From the first-order's words, they knew that Pandora and Victoria had been invaded by foreign planets. The first-rank team didn't appear in Pandora, so according to the schedule, the first-rank team should have arrived after they left. It was highly possible that the first-rank had learned about link and the wasteland Expeditionary Force from the Pandora humans.
However, these were not the reasons for the first order to act out of character.
