They had the best of intentions.
Project Vitek was a secret experiment conducted by the 1st Triumvirate. During the height of the Bug War, the Tech Infantry suffered from the problem of overwhelming casualties. Although the Bugs could breed more, the draftees of the TI were from a limited pool. Faced with extinction, the Federation Grand Council authorized the project.
The Experiment
Using a combination of cloned bodies and spirit magick, scientists endeavored to resurrect the spirits of dead Tech Infantry troopers and place them in new bodies. Their first subject was a trooper by the name of Marko Vitek. Initial attempts met with failure due to the problem of the trooper reliving his death and going into mental lock. Later attempts proceeded to implant false memories, in order to cover up the old history. The process was eventually perfected and new troopers were engineered. By 2196, they were put into the field, careful not to include them in units where they might run into soldiers they knew and cause a mental lock.
Production
To this day, it's uncertain how many troopers were created by this process, but it was probably no more than a few hundred. Often the troopers were put into units just out of training as NCO's, which tended to suffer horrific casualties. If the subjects died, they were regenerated into new bodies and put into new units. Not all souls were acceptable for this program and so recycling of previous subjects was preferred.
Marko Vitek
Since he was the first subject of this project (and its namesake), he had the most regenerations of the Vitek Line. By 2198, Marko suddenly discovered his past lives, and realized the true horror of the 1st Triumvirate. With his unit, the 86th Platoon, together they kicked off the 1st CIvil War, and he was able to help them defeat the trio. After the war, Project Vitek was abolished.