Photo Credits to Media Club
By Yvette, Shina and Cherry
Orientation 2018 started out with a war. Anthelyon lived peacefully on its own for millions of years, until the technologically superior Xeltros initiated contact from half a billion kilometers away. The fragile relationship between the two planets broke when President Winter of Xeltros was assassinated leading to a declaration of war on Anthelyon. In these dark times, Project Orion was born: 4 elite soldiers equipped with the latest cybernetic enhancements as Anthelyon’s last hope in the war against Xeltros. However, cybernetic technology alone was not enough to defend Anthelyon. As recruits, the students needed to complete missions to support the Commanders in the war.
The first day of orientation focused on bonding between the students and boosting their morales ahead of the coming battles. The Year 2s and Year 4s went for external activities at Marina Barrage and Fort Canning Park respectively, while the rest of the students stayed in school for internal activities. Though the weather was gloomy, the students out on their external field trips were anything but as they engaged in hours of fun, hopping from station to station to overcome obstacles. Activities such as building kites from newspapers and three-legged captain’s ball helped unite students and forge a stronger ‘army’.
The second day sent the student body into a frenzy. Trying to assemble the mech (a mechanical robot to defend Anthelyon from Xeltros missiles), students were deployed to various locations for their missions. This time it was the Year 1 and Year 3 students’ turn for external activities at Clementi Town and Marina Bay respectively. Given clues to certain landmarks in Marina Bay, the Year 3s classes had to take photos and complete their tasks in order to retrieve parts of the mech’s leg. Concurrently, the Year 1s retrieved materials for the mech’s arm from their own stations as they familiarised themselves with Clementi Town.
On the final day, upon establishing that President Winter was still alive, the Y5 cohort was sent out to Sentosa Island in order to locate her whereabouts via water-related activities by the beach. The session concluded with an inter-house dodgeball fight atop the sand. It was a fierce battle to decide which house gets enter a secret door that had a clue to President Winter’s whereabouts and the Nobel house emerged victorious.
Finally, the students assembled in the hall for the finale in their house T-shirts, splitting the hall into 4 colourful squares. The war against Xeltros had taken a turn for the worse and Xeltros’ head in command, Commander Raex, was not giving in to peace talks. He refused negotiations and even attempted to catch the Anthelyon commanders unaware while they were leaving. As usual, the finale kicked off with a grand march-in of the house floats. This year, the house floats were designed as warships for each section of the military: Air (Faraday), Sea (Fleming), Land (Nobel) and Space (Fibonacci). Accompanied by complex dances, each house float had their own unique touch to it and put up a spectacular performance.
Complications arose as Commander Raex took President Winter hostage and threatened everyone with a detonator. But even after his defeat, the situation continued to escalate as General DDos was revealed to have turned President Winter into a mindless cyborg. Forced to go against the one they trust the most, Commanders Koel, Kenji, Eddy and Tyson team up to fight against the General. In the ensuing face-off, they were reduced to losing all their cybernetic enhancements. That’s where the student body came in – shouting each house cheer loudly and proudly, stopping the shutdown procedure and saving the Commanders.
The battle quickly evolved and General DDos was taken down. It was a bittersweet ending for the 4 Commanders as they looked towards the Rise of A New Era for Anthelyon, heartbroken but hopeful. “Positive intentions, without a positive process, can never result in a positive outcome.” Commander Eddy’s remark on General DDo’s actions left a powerful message behind in Orientation 2018, giving us something to reflect on in the coming year!
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