Oh no that's so early, you didn't even make it to the base :-( Sorry!!
That fight is possible to get through but we have been getting feedback from other playtesters that the poison stacks from the Blighted Blooms might be a bit OP if you don't take them out early? soooo we just released a patch with some balancing tweaks! Might help you if you're willing to give it another go. Had a few other improvements too.
A note on the auto-save: Once you get past that boss you make it to your bunker which acts as a save point between missions :-)