On the central table lay the commission for which this night had been kept awake—the NTR Knight model v104. It was not merely an upgrade of steel and sinew but a remaking of doctrine. They had stripped away the ornamental bravado of older models and filled the void with pragmatic mechanics: reinforced joint plates designed to shrug off glancing blows, a micro-ceramic lattice in the chest cavity to diffuse projectile impact, and a routing matrix that favored adaptive defense over reckless charge. Where v103 had sought glory, v104 sought survival.