Allison Stanek

Allison Beatrice Stanek is the "Mother" of Prague's sect of the Singularity Church of the MachineGod. She is also the daughter of Nomad Stanek, a watchmaker in Prague.

Biography
Allison was a member of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team in the Czech military, where she was injured while on duty. To save her life and to make her better at her job, she received mechanical augmentations. Her work as part of the EOD gave her experience not just in bomb disposal, but in bomb-making as well. During the Aug Incident, Allison was one of the people to suffer from psychotic hallucinations. Soon afterwards, she was dishonorably discharged from the military.

Church of the MachineGod
Following the Aug Incident, Stanek suffers from depression, but soon has a revelation relating to the so-called "MachineGod." She believes that during the Incident, she experiences something called "Singularity" - when the minds of augmented people transcend their bodies and merge with the MachineGod. This belief leads her to either join or create a splinter group of the Singularity Church of the MachineGod.

By 2028, Allison is the "Mother" of Prague's Church and runs her group from an apartment complex in Prague. The role of the Mother is to lead the other members, and to be the first along with a chosen few to take part in the Ascension. The term "Ascension" refers to the process by which Stanek and other cult members will attempt to merge their minds with the MachineGod, killing themselves in the process. The beliefs of Allison's group, however, are more extreme than those of the proper Singularity Church of the MachineGod. The official Church does not endorse Allison's splinter group.

One member of the church, Josef Severn, constructed a machine, described as a "consciousness collector," intended for this purpose. However, when Severn had doubts as to the whether the machine will work as intended, Allison expelled him from the church for lacking faith.

Involvement with the Růžička Station bombing
Stanek becomes resentful of non-augmented people after the Aug Incident, and believes that those who have oppressed the augmented should be punished. She is asked by Viktor Marchenko to create a number of bombs to be used to do exactly this, and was proud to help Marchenko. Some of these bombs are used during the bombing of Růžička Station.

Task Force 29 investigation
Task Force 29's investigation of the bombing traces the timing mechanism of the bombs detonated at the Růžička Station to Alison's father, watchmaker Nomad Stanek, and discovers bomb-making tools in Nomad's apartment. When Nomad is interrogated by Adam Jensen, Nomad reveals that these bomb-making tools were not his, but were Allison's. Nomad also tells Jensen that Allison sent a messenger to tell Nomad that she was saying "goodbye."

Later, Nomad contacts Jensen to tell him that Allison is about to be killed, and begs Jensen to get to the Church to intervene. Allison is about to undergo the "Ascension." However, contrary to Nomad's portrayal of Allison as a victim of the cultists, it is Allison who wanted the Ascension.

Upon receiving Nomad's call, Jensen is presented with the dilemma of whether he should pursue Allison to learn more about her involvement with the bombing, or instead learn more about the Orchid by breaking into VersaLife's vault in the Palisade Property Bank. If Jensen decides to meet with Allison, Jensen will learn from Allison that Marchenko has moved his base to a research center in the Swiss alps called G.A.R.M., providing Jensen with a valuable clue. Jensen will also have the opportunity to persuade Allison to forego the Ascension.

Mission appearances

 * M11: Confronting the Bomb-Maker
 * If Jensen succeeds in persuading Allison not to go through with Ascension, she will instead let herself be arrested (and, if persuasion level was high, give Jensen a signal jammer to defuse the remaining bombs she made for Marchenko). Afterwards, she is transferred to one of the holding cells in the Task Force 29 Headquarters, where she seems to finally be at peace. She is only staying there temporarily, however, as she is to be transferred to a special prison called "the Grave."
 * If Jensen fails to show up at the Church or fails to persuade Allison not to go through with Ascension, then Allison steps into the consciousness collector, supposedly killing herself. Afterwards, Nomad will confront Jensen if approached in front of the Church, accusing Jensen of leaving Allison to die.

CASIE summary
During Confronting the Bomb-Maker (if you chose this mission over The Heist), you will have to debate Allison. Her CASIE summary is as follows:

Personality traits: Psychological profile:
 * Desperate
 * Defiant
 * Volatile
 * Hides despair behind denial and vanity. Needs nurturing, but not over-indulgence.
 * Struggling against depression. Requires realistic, non-patronizing inspiration.
 * Expresses frustrations with rage. Will relent when confronted.

Trivia

 * According to the character's voice actor, Allison had a sincere desire to follow through with what she believed was the ultimate reality.
 * Stanek is a Polish gender-neutral surname. The Czech-language variants of this surname are written with diacritics: Staněk (masculine) and Staňková (feminine).