Author's Note: I do not own Now and Then, Here and There or Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There. This is a fan made work, which I am making no profit off of.

Tabul
Warlord of the Tabul Empire
Airship "The Hammer" Currently docked in "Tabul City",
Near the shore of "The Lake",
Special Region

Tabul, warlord of the Tabul Empire sat in a chair on top of his parked airship, which he referred to as his "Hammer", after it's appearance of a large shaft with a massive head, as well as its use in crushing his enemies.

Below him, a small collection of mud brick, stone, and scavenged metal shacks spread out around the parked airship, the settlement he had founded near "The Lake" as his capital, Tabul City. Beyond the crudely constructed walls and guard towers, and the steel gray masses of parked vehicles in varying states of disrepair, stood a narrow line of green along the Lake- farms worked by slaves to support his army.

By far the dominant feature, however, was a body of water every one know only as "The Lake", which stretched as far as the eye could see, the largest body of water for thousands of miles, until you reached the shores of the sea. In the middle of the lake, rocky islands poked up from the islands surface. A mere 20 years or so ago, "The Lake" had been a massive valley covered by salt pans and sand dunes, interspersed with small mountain ranges.

All that changed suddenly about 20 years ago, when Tabul was only a child soldier under the warlord Hamdo, but it was that moment that began his rise to power. It was that strange girl, that "Lala-Ru", who appeared around the same time as that boy, "Shu", that had proven Hamdo's down fall. Tabul didn't know exactly how it happened, but somehow when they had finally taken Lala-Ru on board, Hamdo's airship, the "Hellywood", he called it, suddenly flooded in mid-flight.

At that moment, Tabul thought he was dead, killed by drowning or the impact of the ship colliding with the ground. However, what seemed to Tabul like a fraction of a second later, he awoke on the shore of a massive body of water. Somehow, Lala-Ru had flooded not only the Hellywood, but a broad expanse of land.

Hamdo and most of his army were dead. Of the roughly 3000 crew of the Hellywood, a few hundred survived. Some of them travelled to the village of Zari-Bars, while about 200 remained under the leadership of Abelia, Hamdo's former second in command. For several years, the remnants of Hellywood formed a small settlement, farming on the shores of "The Lake" and occasionally fighting off raider attacks.

It was during one such attack when Tabul was about 20 that marked the next momentous event Tabul's rise. A stray bullet struck Abelia in the head, killing her instantly. Without a leader, the survivors of Hellywood were in chaos. With most of other high-ranking members of Hamdo's army having died in the destruction of the ship years earlier, there was no one else to lead the group. The would have been wiped out, were it not for Tabul, who held the group, which consisted mostly of teenagers and children together.

Under his leadership, the raider attack was repelled. The next day, Tabul was a hero among the survivors, who made him their new leader. Within a few weeks, Tabul gathered as many old vehicles and weapons as he could, and led his militia out on their first offensive operation since the fall of Hellywood.

A force of two heavy assault transports, four tanks and seven mechs led an assault on the raider camp, hammering it with their heavy guns. At the same time, Tabul himself led a group of infantry equipped with heavy weapons into the mountains behind the base. While the raiders were fighting his armored forces, the infantry group launched a surprise attack from the rear. They fired down on the raiders with rocket launchers and machine guns. The enemy were trapped between the two forces and slaughtered practically to a man. The few survivors were given two choices. Fight for Tabul or die.

For as long as he could remember, since he had been first introduced to the brutal nature of reality of this world when he was taken from his village and forced into Hamdo's army, Tabul had known that only the strong would survive. What Tabul desired was not simply to be strong, but to be the strongest, stronger even than Hamdo. Now he had finally led an army to victory… but this was just the beginning.

After the victory, Tabul turned his sights on several nearby villages. Hamdo would have just slaughtered the villagers and taken their children to use as soldiers or slaves. At one point, Tabul might have done just that, however, in the years since the fall of Hellywood, he had become more pragmatic. He needed more manpower to expand his army, and to kill off the villagers was a waste of a valuable resource. Instead, Tabul and the villagers made an agreement- Tabul and his army would provide protection from raiders and bandits, and, in exchange, they would provide him tributes of food and soldiers for his army.

As the years went by, Tabul's alliance, which he had come to call his "empire"- a word he had heard about from stories of the Old Civilization- expanded as more villages were co-opted into the empire, and more raider gangs were either wiped out or, as was increasingly the case, surrendered and joined Tabul's army under the threat of force.

For a while, Tabul was content to play the role of the benevolent leader, but only so long as people obeyed him. Several years after the start of his "empire", Tabul had wiped out or co-opted most of the major raider gangs in the area. Because of this, villages along the fringes began to refuse to join him and some of his own empire even declared their intent to leave and stopped sending tribute. Tabul's retribution was swift and brutal. He ordered his armies to attack the rebel villages, slaughter anyone who resisted, burn down the village, and execute the leader in the most brutal of manners- impalement, burning alive, or being drawn and quartered between vehicles. The message was clear: "Obey me or die".

Tabul gained further power when he managed to repair an Old Civilization airship that had lay in ruins of centuries. It was this vessel that became his Hammer. A rival warlord on the north side of The Lake was the first to be crushed beneath The Hammer. The warlord had send a large army to attack the ship in the midst of repairs, intending to take it for himself. Tabul fired one of the six remaining UMP missiles on the enemy, annihilating every last one of them, before sending his army to the now almost undefended base camp and razed it to the ground. In the coming years, two more foes would be struck down by The Hammer, one the vessel of a rival "shiplord" foolish enough attempt a direct assault, and the second a coalition of rebel villages.

The Tabul Empire quickly became the most powerful faction in the wasteland, controlling much of the north, south, and east shore of "The Lake", with a population of at least twenty thousand people.

Only a group known as the Alliance of United Villages, centered around the village of Zari-Bars, remained opposed to Tabul. While it never came down to open warfare, skirmishes on territorial borders were common. The AUV did not have an airship of their own, however, they did have many armored vehicles and heavy weapons, carried off by those who abandoned the ruins of Hellywood. The alliance was founded and led by a former prisoner of Hellywood, a strange woman who called herself by two names: Sara Ringwald.

When Sara heard of Tabul's acquisition of the airship, rather than surrender, the AUV placed artillery and rocket launchers modified to be aimed at high angles- improvised anti-aircraft weapons- in hidden positions throughout the canyons that surrounded Zari-Bars and the other villages, as well as the mountains above them. These positions were spread out enough that, if the Hammer were to get into UMP missile range of Zari-Bars, they would be within range of the artillery. If he invaded by land, they would simply lower their guns and cut down his forces as they entered the maze of canyons.

As much as Tabul hated to admit it, he could not risk a full-scale attack on the AUV, they were too well entrenched, and it would only take one well-placed shell to the thrusters to send the Hammer dropping like a stone. This stalemate was the state of affairs in the wasteland for ten years, until Tabul got word of a second downed airship. At first, Tabul had intended to restore it and add it to his already formidable arsenal. That proved impossible- the entire nose of the airship was destroyed, probably hit by a nuke or a UMP missile during the downfall of the Old Civilization. But in the surviving rear of the ship, Tabul's forces reported there was a functional wormhole generator.

The generator would prove a prize far greater than any warship in and of itself. After all, hadn't that "Shu" kid come through the Hellywood's wormhole generator? Tabul had heard that in his homeland, water and natural resources were plentiful. Furthermore, given what Shu was like, the people of this world were surely weak, no doubt rendered soft by plenty. If he could get seize their abundant resources, Tabul would have the power to forge an empire truly worthy of being a successor to the Old Civilization.

And, soon enough, Tabul would receive a report back from the leader of the army he dispatched to the other world. In fact, in the distance, Tabul could see the cloud of sand kicked up by a large formation of vehicles. It was not long after that a messenger entered the room.

"Sir, we have just made radio contact with Sadera and her army, they are returning with captives, including a 'gift' for you", the soldier said.

"Instruct her to report to me and present the captive, as soon as she arrives", Tabul replied.

Half an hour later:

A tall woman wearing a dark brown officer's uniform, with brown hair, bleached light by the relentless desert sun and made messy by the wind walked into the room on the upper bridge of the ship that Tabul used as an office and command center.

This woman, Sadera, was one of Tabul's best commanders, and also one of the most brutal, seeming to relish in slaughtering Tabul's enemies. Sadera particularly enjoyed cutting down retreating enemies from the back of her hover-bike using her trademark sword- a heavy-bladed chopping blade similar to an elongated machete.

Whenever Tabul invaded a new territory or retaliated against a rebellion, he sent Sadera to show them the consequences of defying him. She would give them one chance to surrender, before she cut down anyone who resisted, as well as anyone who had the misfortune of being in the area at the time.

Standing behind Sadera was a soldier, leading a second woman, bound in chains, at gunpoint. The captive was a girl who looked no older than 18, dressed in clothing that looked distinctly out of place in their world- the girl had not changed her clothes or had them washed since her week in captivity, and yet, by the standards of this world, it was positively spotless. Her skin was far lighter than Tabul and Sadera's and her hair, which fell down to her shoulders was a dark black.

"My Lord", Sadera said, "I present you the spoils."

"This will do nicely", Tabul said, "What's your name, girl?"

"N-Noriko… Mochizuki Noriko", the girl said as cowered into the corner of the room, trying to keep herself as far away from Tabul as the guards would allow her.

"Noriko, is it? Or is it Mochizuki?", Tabul looked at Noriko and said with a perverse smile, "Regardless, you and I, we are going to have a lot of 'fun' later."

Tabul then turned to the guard holding Noriko and ordered, "Bring her to my quarters".

The soldier saluted, before pushing her out the door, pistol pressed against her back.

"Well then, Sadera", Tabul asked, "Given that you have returned with spoils, I take it you have established a base in the Other World?"

"No, My Lord", Sadera replied, "There were…. complications"

"What sort of complications? Explain yourself!?", Tabul asked. His voice remained composed, but there was a distinct note of anger beneath it.

"We entered the portal and arrived on the other side. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, like stories of the Old Civilization. There were tall buildings, some of them taller than the Hammer, all of them clad in glass, and not one piece of that glass was broken. The roads had hardly any cracks in them, and no holes whatsoever, and there were more cars than I though ever could exist. The entire place was filled with were more people than I had ever seen before, far more than my army, and yet only a handful of them were armed.

One of them, a man clad in blue, pointed a gun at us. We opened fire and killed him along with a number of others on the site and advanced through the narrow streets, the only resistance was from a few "men in blue", Sadera said as she began her report.

"If the men in blue were so weak, how were you defeated?", Tabul asked impatiently.

"It all started when we chased them to this stone fort separated from the glass towers by a moat. The men in blue had holed up in the fort. They fired down on us with guns and a gas that burned the eyes and throat. It seeped in even through the vision slits in the exoskeletons and disabled the operators.", Sadera said as she continued her report, "I tried to bombard the fort with rockets, but by the time we got the assault transport carrying the laucher into a position where it could fire without being obstructed by the tall buildings, the flying machines arrived".
"Flying machines?", Tabul asked, "Are you telling me they had an airship?"

"No, Sir", Sadera replied, "They were like the ones in stories about the Old Civilization. Some of them looked like winged metal darts, so fast that it was hard to see them, it was almost like by the time you heard them, they were gone. The others had these rotating metal device, like blades of a fan on top. The machines flew in and fired missiles at us, picking off our vehicles one by one. A few of us tried to shoot back, but they were too fast to hit. We panicked and fled back to the portal, all the while the men in blue chased after us, joined by men dressed in green, who came after us on foot and in tanks. Of the original 4000 or so, only about half of us escaped, and we lost almost all of our heavy armor and most of the spoils- we only got her and five other captives across."

Tabul listened as Sadera finished her story, sounding practically panicked by the end. "It sounds crazy, but I swear it's true… Ask the men, they'll all tell you the same thing".

Tabul looked at Sadera and spoke not a furious shout, but rather, in a soft but nonetheles menacing voice. "Sadera, in spite of your failure, I have not forgotten your years of faithful service. I will grant you a chance to redeem yourself. Your will take your forces and gather the reserves. Then, you will go to the portal, destroy the generator, and kill any of the enemy that made it through."

"If you do not succeed in this mission", Tabul finished, "Don't bother coming back here".

"Thank you, My Lord", Sadera replied, "It will be done."

JSDF Intel Database: XP-1 Semi-Automatic Pistol
Weapon Type: Semi-Automatic Pistol
Effective Range: 20m
Caliber: 9mm (typical)
Rate of Fire: semi-auto only
Description: The XP-1 is a blowback operated semi-automatic pistol design constructed from improvised parts, mostly crudely machined or stamped from scrap steel in a manner not unlike "Khyber Pass" guns of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The most common distinguising characteristic of this class of weapon is the bolt assembly, which protrudes from the rear of the weapon, and recoils backwards when fired. The front sight (if present at all), is mounted a simple post sight, though notably taller than most in order to compensate for the large rear assembly. The weapon is typically chambered for a 9mm centerfire round with a slightly longer casing than the 9mm Parabellum, but with a lower pressure due to the poor-quality propellants used. The magazine typically holds eight rounds. JSDF personnel are not to attempt to load the XP-1 with standard issue 9mm Parabellum rounds, as the higher pressures may lead to an explosion and potential injury or death. Use of the XP-1, like all Special Region weapons, is discouraged even with indiginous ammunition, due to the potential for catastrophic failure of the poorly-maintained weapons.

Author's Note: Sadera is (obviously to those familar with Gate) a reference to the original Gate manga/anime, specifically being named for the capital of the Empire. There will be a few more references to the Gate anime (as well as other works) hidden in the text, though obviously, none of the Special Region characters in the original work will be appearing.