Can't speak for the first as I haven't seen any RPM, but for the second, yeah, it's possible. For those with an empire's worth of resources behind them, like Gruum or whoever, it wouldn't be too hard to put it down to getting complacent and rusty, so when they come up a ranger team they're way out of practice and just realising that the rules of the game have changed/don't apply on this planet. Or something. :)