Mega Man Zero 2/Bombardment Aircraft

The mission starts off with the Resistance shuttle Zero boarded already flying over the incoming Neo Arcadian forces. After asking them to fly lower, the pilot warns him they can't go any lower, or they'll be detected by their radar. Ciel tells Zero to let her know when to transfer over to the bombardment aircraft by activating the portable Trans-server when he reaches the bomb. Zero, already on top of the shuttle, makes a leap of faith into the clouds and lands on one of the attack ships below. From here, the mission begins.

This mission is, by far, the absolute worst in the game in terms of difficulty. There are countless places to mess up, cheap shots by the enemies, and an enormous amount of dangers that can easily destroy a good ranking. With risks galore, to get through this mission with 100 points is a total nightmare.

A Madman's Strech
As soon as the mission officially commences, you're already in the maw of danger. Below is a drop of doom, and you'll have to dash-jump across many Tentolancers, the airship squadron approaching the Resistance Base to move onward. They weave back and forth, so you may be stuck waiting for them to get close enough, but that isn't the real problem. Each one has plasma guns on the side that fire intermittently, and they are positioned in just a way that can make it impossible to avoid damage. Trying to wall-jump up their backsides is also a nasty risk.

Worse, Pantheon Guardians await on several Tentolancers further ahead in the fleet to take cheap shots at you, and you need to quickly destroy them with charged Buster shots before they open fire. There is a very good chance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the knockback effect has sinister consequences in mid-air, namely, cheap death.

As you cross Tentolancers, you can get lucky and land on some below to avoid losing a life, but it's still trouble getting further ahead.

Eventually, the Tentolancers will catch up with the bombardment aircraft, and then you'll be able to jump onto reliable ground without the risk of dying. Waiting for them to catch up may hurt the time constraint of the Mission Report, so it's imperative to keep moving. If you landed a little ways below on the wings of the ship, you can find some Life Energy before advancing ahead.

Sure enough, the lack of enemies was just a front to get you caught in a trap. Zero was expected by Neo Arcadia to come after the attack force, and now a customized red Tentolancer has arrived to attack him back!

Sub Boss: Tentolancer
Unlike the other green Tentolancers, this one is specially designed to be the leader of the fleet. It is much more merciless towards enemies, and has a few additional weapons in its arsenal. This one wasn't programmed with the objective of attacking the base, but the personal destruction of Zero.

Right away, the Tentolancer will unload two missles at you. You need to be precise to either dodge or destroy them, and they hurt a lot. You can destroy them quickly with Charge shots or the Shield Boomerang if thrown accurately.

After shooting its missles, the Tentolancer will fly offscreen and then sweep over above, dropping explosive charges nearly everywhere. You need to dash right to the edge of the screen where the Tentolancer was to dodge them all. The Tentolancer will reappear on the other side of the screen afterward, and will keep going back and forth as it attacks with missles. It's weak to the Ice Chip, and simply hitting it will damage it. Fortunately, it takes only a few charged attacks from any weapon to send this Tentolancer out of the sky in a smoldering heap. As a final insult, you get no Cyber-Elf.

Entering the Aircraft
Once the Tentolancer is defeated, it's just a quick dash past a few Pantheon Guardians, made easy with the Buster. You'll soon reach the other side of the bombardment aircraft, and the hatch that leads down inside. Climb down the ladder to find some helpful items, but then you'll encounter some not-so-helpful obstacles...