"Welcome, Senator Hayes. Here he is; our latest pride and joy- Project 16. He has been designed to fulfill your personal defense needs perfectly."
"Impressive. You say this thing will take care of my enemies?"
"Oh, most definitely. Project 16's been trained to be intensely loyal to his master, and has already proven himself to be quite adept at the art of ending life. The Red Hooks should beg you for mercy now, if they know what's good for them."
"Excellent. Is he ready to be transported?"
"Yes, Senator. Tritus thanks you for your business, and please, if there's anything more we can do for you- don't hesitate to ask."
This was the beginning of Project 16's life. Commissioned by the powerful Terran Senator Killian Hayes to serve as a bodyguard and personal soldier, Project 16, 16 for short, was a perfect, systematic killing machine- quite literally, an organic computer designed to end its targets' lives as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Ruthlessly loyal to his master, 16 killed numerous members of the Red Hook Corporate Syndicate, an intergalactic commercial-criminal organization which years prior had had a falling-out with the Senator. The Senator wanted to get the Red Hooks before they got him, and 16's purpose was to ensure that this was exactly how things played out.
However, due to the Senator's own folly, he did not escape the Red Hooks' grasp. He sent 16 after the head of the Red Hooks' CEO, Ivan Tantalus Komsky II (Old Ivan to most acquaintances), with the idea that cutting off the head of the Red Hooks would be similar in result to cutting off the head of a chicken- a little flapping commotion, followed by stillness and death of the Syndicate.
To any other assassin, this would be a suicide mission. Old Ivan had no less than 4 heavily-armed bodyguards with him at any given time. To add insult to injury, his four closest bodyguards carried the transmitters for a personal forcefield always surrounding Komsky, preventing any sniper attacks. Old Ivan was, to most, invincible.
To 16, however, he was just another target to dispose of in the name of his beloved master. 16 was dispatched 2 months before Old Ivan's next known trip off-planet, which was to Tritus Labs to observe, test, and recieve a custom slave he had ordered- Project 43. It was roughly a week later that 16 began his silent observation of Invincible Ivan. He watched for changes in behavior, attitude, and demeanor; he watched for any substance use or renting of sex slaves; he watched for any possible times that Ivan might have his guard lowered or be vulnerable in some way. It was through this observation that 16 learned that Ivan's personal forcefield would have to be disabled while on the shuttle to Tritus, due to Tritus' strict security policy. Tritus was glad to welcome rich, powerful customers, but that didn't meant that Tritus trusted them.
16 began to truly show his cunning and potential at this point. The day of Ivan's trip to Tritus began smoothly enough- nothing seemed amiss; the pilot was the same one scheduled for months, there were no signs of tampering anywhere on the shuttle, and Ivan successfully boarded the shuttle, as calm as ever, and deactivated his forcefield.
Now 16 made his move. 16 had stowed himself within the air circulation system of the shuttle nearly three weeks prior, putting himself into a form of suspended animation. Upon his subconscious becoming aware of the shuttle lifting off, he left the state of suspended animation, reconnecting all necessary psychoactives for the task at hand. First he broke into the cockpit in complete silence, simply walking up behind the pilot and quickly, adeptly sending a titanium blade, resembling a nightstick in general shape, up through the bottom of his jaw, piercing the brain and killing him instantly. From there, 16 piloted the ship off-course to an empty region of space.
16, the killing computer, left the pilot there for the time being and simply entered the passenger area. The guards were dead before they could get up, electromagnetically-accelerated war darts piercing each guard's brain through the left eye socket. Only Ivan remained.
Old Ivan, Invincible Ivan, was dumbfounded. Speechless, he grasped for something to say as his face twisted into weird shapes, attempting to find a proper expression for the situation.
He ended up grimacing and croaking, "Oh, fuck." Then he was turned into neat 3cmx3cm Ivan cubes, which were then stacked into a neat pyramid.
Dumping all of the corpses, save for Ivan's, 16 then calmly returned to the cockpit, where he piloted the private shuttle to its destination, Tritus Labs. He quickly made his way to the public shuttle station after that, returning to the Senator. The Senator's folly in having Old Ivan assassinated was remaining in his office.
Years earlier, as Ivan was leaving the Senator's office, furious that the Senator would not make extra leeway for the Red Hooks, he had left a hunter-seeker drone on the floor- a half-sentient liquid metal worm, which when activated would seek out the nearest source of movement and heat and burrow into it, attempting to destroy a vital organ or a brain. This particular hunter-seeker was set to activate upon recieving a signal from Ivan's artificial heart- once it stopped beating, the hunter-seeker would activate, hopefully killing the Senator.
16 returned to his master's office and saw the Senator lying on the floor, twitching behind his desk, dying. There was a hole in his head and liquified brain was leaking out. This was the first time that 16 experienced pain. His psychological conditioning made him unable to see any creature other than his master as actual life, and his master was, in his mind, a deity. He had seen his god die.
From there 16's story becomes even more violent- he began to seek out every living Red Hooks member, killing them systematically, always leaving the body in some bizarre sorting scheme. The Universal Corrections Force didn't bother attempting to stop him, either- they saw him as doing them a service, killing off the Red Hooks. It was believed that when 16 was finished with destroying the Red Hooks, he would likely return to Tritus Labs.
16's trail of blood continued. The bizarre, unexplained murders continued, until a particularly foolish Red Hook member chose to hold a 250-guest wedding for his son. 16 was in attendance, waiting for the perfect moment.
The bride and groom, beaming with happiness- not even Red Hook members, began walking down the aisle together, and made it about half way before they stopped. Nobody knew what to think- the lovely couple was just standing there, eyes wide and mouths agape. Time seemed to stand still.
It was but a moment later that they fell neatly into pieces, separated by major joints- the ankles, knees, elbows, shoulders, pelvis, and neck. Chaos ensued as 16 walked in through the main entrance, nightstick-blades equipped in either hand. He stood still, sizing up the situation for a moment, then went to work, systematically cutting down every person in the chapel- family, guests, clergy... everyone.
Each person, safe for the bride and groom, who were left exactly as they were, was killed by a cut to the front of the neck, five inches wide and three inches deep. The cuts were perfectly horizontal in relation to the victim's shoulders. These victims, again save for the bride and groom, then had their organs removed, and sorted by size, shape, and color in front of the altar.
The Universal Corrections Force decided at this time that perhaps 16 was too dangerous to allow to run free.
The next several years of 16's life involved roaming the known universe, searching for a new master, putting all of those he deemed unworthy as a master to the same incredibly systematic forms of death he had put so many others to. As he murdered and murdered again, avoiding the Universal Corrections Force at every turn, he became increasingly aware of the existence of mental illness- despite the number of illicit chemicals he pumped into his body at a constant rate, he could not mute out the increasing sorrow he felt from losing his God.
Somehow, 16 arrived at the Mess, presumably via the Zipways. He doesn't even know; at this point he is in a state of constant delirium.
16 needs a master.