Managed to outrun the SA-X this time. I didn’t realise you could shoot it with ice missiles to freeze it. I didn’t have a lot of energy left afterwards, so had to limp my way to a save point. The SA-X can kill you in two hits, even if you have some 600 units of health. Nasty.
After that, I found the cause of the vegetation growth – another boss. This one was pretty wasy, but took some 753265 missiles to destroy. A little further on, and there’s another boss. Anyone would think this game was written by Treasure, or something. Nightmare was easy to kill to start with, but then it changed form a little, and then I couldn’t damage it at all. So I died. Four times.