I don't know if this would fit into your concept or not, but we have all these frozen heads and sometimes bodies tucked away in cryostasis facilities. At some point, it was decided to see if a life-mage could bring back one of these people to life. Unfortunately, ice crystals had formed in the subject brains and the expanding crystal damaged their brains. While the mages are able to fix some of this damage, they can't restore what was lost - memory, personality.

The public calls them "Burnts," and they're usually found performing menial jobs.

But this is an expensive process trying to restore these frozen heads, especially since they need to clone full bodies for them. So the ones that show they can carry out more complex instructions are rebuilt as security cyborgs. Most people are unaware that behind that body armor and faceplace is an actual face, thinking they're purely machines. And nobody sheds a tear when a "machine" gets damaged while trying to protect a client.

Possibly you have one or two on board, for security or perhaps as expendable scouts?