First World: Covenant Announces China's First Manned Mission To The Moon

Online, May 25, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Mark Lund, through his newly formed The Ashton Times, announces the publication of First World: Covenant on the Amazon Kindle. Covenant marks the first in a series of ebooks of the First World story.

Set in the year 2018, First World centers around China's announcement to the United Nations on its first manned mission to the Moon which sets forth the unraveling of a worldwide cover-up that began when Apollo 11 discovered a domed installation in the Sea of Tranquility and, with it, the origins of mankind.

In Covenant, Kathleen Gould, the mysterious chief executive of the Bank of Shinar International, was about to start a seemingly ordinary day when she receives word that the United Nations Security Council is about to announce China's first manned mission to the Moon - four years ahead of schedule.

On that news, Gould summons her top lieutenants to an emergency meeting in New York to assess China's announcement on global financial markets and to prepare for possible evacuation - off the planet. Little did Gould know that another gathering was taking place.

General Reager of Air Force Space Command is charged with the authority to carry out a directive that has been in place for the last half century - to stop any future manned missions to the Moon. Within hours of the Security Council's announcement, military units around the world begin to disengage from standing orders to engage an alien presence that has infiltrated planetary governments and corporations.

With the United States Secret Service enacted to protect twelve prominent individuals from a long standing presidential order, time is short for those that know about the original classified mission of the Apollo space program and what the world faces should it become public. ...that mankind has never been alone.

"I originally wrote First World as a screenplay," said Covenant author Mark Lund. "During a meeting with a producer about developing the feature film, it was suggested that I write the story as a series of novels. Covenant commences twenty four hours prior to events in the screenplay and provides some additional background and insight."

First World: Covenant (ISBN: 978-0-615-49175-2) is a prequel novella to the award nominated screenplay First World: Revelation. Since 2007, First World: Revelation has placed in three writing contests at leading film festivals, been produced as a short film that has screened at twenty science fiction conventions in over six countries and is running on Hulu.com through the IndieFlix channel. Covenant retails on the Amazon Kindle for $.99. Cover illustration by Marek Purzycki. The next installment of the series, Synedrion, is scheduled for publication in fall 2011.