The guard hesitates. "Ancient technology? Well, I suppose Lady Impa might be best for that here, but you really should visit Hateno Town for that... She remembers the Calamity so perhaps she knows something that would be useful to you. But how am I to know you are not some bandit or a Yiga or something? You could be lying."

One of the things she landed with was her gun. She explains how it works and demonstrates basic safety information before handing it to him, alongside a grappling hook and a couple of nets. "I'll take those back when I come back outside. Does that work?"

He is kind of alarmed by her presenting a weird weapon and has her set the stuff down on the ground instead.

"......Hmmmm. You still might be a waste of her time. But this stuff is weird enough that you're probably telling the truth. I'll ask her if she wants to see you, wait here please."

"Alright, you can go see Lady Impa."

Naomi really hopes nothing happens to the gun. Not that she's very good at using it. 

When she starts up the stairs she hears a beep on her commlink and whirls around. It's been going off for the last few minutes and she's been tuning it out, assuming it was a reminder she had set for herself to make a map overlay from all the geographic information her eyes had collected so far. Before she steps inside and sees Impa, she checks it absently, like she normally does before she goes into a mission and needs to meet with a Johnson -- 

And she sees a persona. The Matrix representation of a person, silhouette outlined in a blue AR line through the door. Augmented reality, indeed.

She blinks. Maybe Impa has an "ancient technology" commlink and monitors the matrix in her area? She's not quite sure why someone would need to do that. Maybe it helps keep those Guardians away.

She walks inside.

Impa is... Very, very old. The house itself looks old too, in a 'history' sort of way.

"So, a stranger from far-off lands finds herself here. Young lady, you may have stumbled into trouble. Hyrule is not truly at peace."

There's a faint glow around the woman, only visible through AR. "How 'not at peace' are we talking, is there a war going on with another country or did I land in the middle of a civil war?"

"Civil war is not quite right, but probably your best reference point. Since the evil god Ganon's return one hundred years ago, and because of his continuing blight on the world, all countries I know of have destabilized and collapsed. The kingdom of Hyrule, the kingdoms of Rhobe and Latrife to the north, the nomad republics... The island tribes of the Great Sea occasionally visit our shores and trade, but we have seen no great sailing ships from the more distant lands of Kalvit for eighty-odd years, or ships or travelers from other lands as far as I know, either."

"What does 'blight' mean in this context?"

"Summoning wandering storms. Poisoning wells and creating fetid, toxic swamps where once was lush farmland. Taking control of the robotic army left over by the Sheikah... And monsters. Many, many monsters. All those that one may kill simply reappear whenever there is a blood moon."

"I haven't seen any monsters. Where are they?"

"If you have not seen any monsters, you came here from either due south or through the forest in the north-east, during the day. There are more at night. Young lady, enough of Hyrule. Though I sense no Malice in you-" That 'Malice' definitely had a capital letter in it. "-I don't even know your name. So, tell me your name. Tell me how you arrived in Hyrule. And tell me some of where you came from so I can judge if you are making it up on the spot."

"My name is Naomi. I come from a place called, uh -- should I say 'UCAS' my country or 'Earth' my planet -- I was um. Investigating. A magical phenomenon there. And that sent me here. I have no clue how, I don't do magic, I only work with technology. It was something done to me, not something I can control."

"Oh? An investigator? And one who works with technology at that. I have never heard of such a thing as people from another planet. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, I'm sure you understand."

"I left my gun and other weapons outside. Why don't I --" she reaches into a pocket and pulls out a tiny drone, which she lets out to zip around near her head. "This is a drone. It's small and entirely mechanical and I control it."

The drone startles her. "-Ah! ...So it is like a tiny Guardian. Hmm. I think I am forced to believe you." She coughs a couple of times. "Perhaps you are part of the divine plan and will help rid the world of Ganon in some way."

A drone is like a tiny Guardian, huh? Interesting. "Maybe. I'd be more able to do that if I knew anything about the gods, or Ganon, or how Guardians work."

"I do not think I should tell you everything, but... Yes, everything a Yiga infiltrator would already know, I will explain. And in return you should explain more of what you can do, perhaps what your home was like if it is relevant. Does this sound fair? And am I correct in assuming you would seek a way to return to your home?"

"That sounds great! And probably, yeah, I had some unfinished projects going on." Although nothing that really required her to be there. She was mostly collecting money and resources and could probably do something like the same thing here. She likes to think she was doing some coalition-building to take down a giant mega-corporation, but she wasn't dumb enough to think her first forays into networking were very good. And she was already expecting that to be a very long-term project. 

"What do you want to know?"

"You have that drone... You say you are an investigator - I gather you do not necessarily mean scientific investigation... Perhaps I should send you to my sister after our conversation. She is, in all likelihood, the person who knows the most about Sheikah technology still among the living. Ahem! At any rate, now to tell my story..."

"Ganon is important to this tale. A primal evil that has returned again and again over the ages. He has been turned back time and time again by a warrior bearing the soul of a hero and a princess carrying the bloodline of the goddess... Ten thousand years ago, the land was at the height of power and technological progress. It was then that the Divine Beasts, the automated army of Guardians, and the ancient shrines and towers were created. The Divine Beasts, piloted by four champions, and the Guardians worked with the hero and the princess, and successfully sealed away Ganon. But at the last moment, Ganon's influence lashed out and corrupted the Guardians and the Divine Beasts. They became lifeless, useless. And so the time of prosperity came to an end, with no technology remaining in working order."

"One hundred and twenty years ago, growing increasingly worried about the prophecies of ruin spoken by sages everywhere, King Rhoam ordered the formation of a research institute. We were instructed to excavate sites likely to hold ancient Sheikah technology and devote ourselves to understanding it... Whatever effect the legend speaks of, where Ganon had disabled Sheikah technology, seemed to be gone. We made rapid progress. Uncovering the army of Guardians, uncovering the four Divine Beasts. We learned to control them, learned a little bit of the ancient thinking machines. We arranged for a mighty champion to learn to pilot each Beast, and we identified the hero and the princess foretold by prophesy. Everything seemed to be in order. But we were overconfident... When Ganon arose once again, one hundred years ago... He did not merely disable the Guardians and Divine Beasts, he took control of them, turned them to evil ends. The four Champions were slain. The hero fled the battle with grievous wounds, and was brought to a place of healing, and the princess..." She shakes her head.

"The army of Guardians spread throughout the land, destroying everything in their path. Legions of monsters rose up, more than ever before, and aggressively attacked anyone they could find. The knights of Hyrule fought bravely and well, but in most places there was little they could do. Guardians are terrifyingly fast and boast weapons that can blow stone walls to pieces with little effort. The knights somehow held a line of defense at Fort Hateno, and another at Akkala Citadel. They slew a great many Guardians. Akkala Citadel fell after three days, but Fort Hateno held. Alas, everywhere else defense was mostly futile. Millions died. Hyrule has yet to recover. We called this the Time of Burning Fields."

"That is a hell of a story. Wow. I ... I don't want to minimize your suffering or anything but I think I know the reason why Ganon took control of the guardians so quickly."

Impa shakes her head. "Most do not remember the Calamity, at any rate, and those of us who do must move on and deal with the world as it is now, not dwell on it. Do explain your idea, please."

"Well, first of all, I come from a world that has what we call the matrix. It overlays physical space and you can leave your body and move around in it if you have the right interfacing tools, which I do. There also seems to be a matrix here, but it's lacking major functions that I'm used to. There aren't as many hosts -- places in the matrix where the extra dimensional quality of the matrix can store information, extra space, or act as a locus for interacting with someone from far away. In my world every single building has a host. Everyones' houses have hosts, every restaurant has a host, office buildings have hosts.

"Also in my world everyone has a persona, because you have to interact with the matrix to do your job. Everyone has a device called a commlink that lets them communicate with their friends, make reservations, pay for things. Some people, called technomancers, don't need commlinks to have personas, though." She looks at Impa thoughtfully.

"So anyway, in my world Matrix-use is so regular and widespread that there's also widespread security and protocols over device ownership. There's an organization called GOD -- the grid overwatch division -- that makes it really difficult to change ownership of devices. Instead people rely on a different system of interacting with matrix objects called the mark system, which lets you have temporary access to another device or application or host. But if you reboot your device you lose your marks and you have to get them again."

"But your world doesn't have a GOD. So when Ganon came back -- I guess he's a technomancer -- he just changed the ownership of the devices to himself. Nothing was stopping him. And no one bothered to change it back because no other people knew how to work in the Matrix -- no one had changed the ownership of the Sheikah devices.

"... that's just a theory though. I could verify it if I got my hands on a Guardian and changed the ownership."

"I believe I know what you are referring to - the mana field, we called it. A space where magic and information can reside adjacent to the physical world, just as real but not directly accessible... I would caution you not to assume the Matrix here works as it does in your world. And do not underestimate the evil power of Ganon. And you should not go seeking out a Guardian. It will kill you if you cannot control it. It would be a tragedy for you to underestimate the dangers of this land and meet a violent end."

"I could try from here, actually. You don't actually need to be near something to get access to it. I would need help to bring it back after I bricked it, though, since it wouldn't be able to move afterwards, and I'd need it immobile to dig into the hardware so I could change the ownership."

"Hm. This seems dangerous. Guardians are too large to move easily when not under their own power, but a place with one Guardian is likely to have more. No, I do not think we can help you bring it back here. We would not want it here in any case, lest it awaken again and destroy the village."