Stuck on HD campaign

[dreadofmondays]

What is up with Meltdown? D:

As a novice, I'm going through the campaign trying to get a logically progressing difficulty curve, but Dropzone features mainly Venom and Flash events and Meltdown suddenly jumps straight to Phantom, and more phantom. I'm not used to playing on this speed. D: I died three times on VK without ever being hit by a weapon.
I will admit it's a good challenge to actually win, but the transition is more than a little jarring.

tl;dr: me having a whinge.
Does anyone have tips on handling the level up? o-o