Chief An-Yi “Lily” Shen is the daughter of Dr. Raymond Shen and serves as the Chief Engineering Officer of XCOM aboard the Avenger in XCOM 2.
Even though Lily Shen serves as Chief Engineer for XCOM, her ties to Earth's supreme defense force started at a much younger age. She moved to California from Taiwan when she was in grade school, all under the guise of her father accepting an academic position at the California Institute of Technology. This turned out to be a cover story, as her father secretly accepted the position of director for XCOM's entire engineering division.
When the aliens attacked, Shen was only eight years old. She said goodbye to her father as he departed for XCOM HQ, and would not see him again until XCOM lost the first war. After surviving the initial conflict, the two stayed away from the cities and tried their best to avoid ADVENT while she completed her education. It was exceptionally difficult for Lily when her father passed away, especially since he had yet to complete his life's work: defeating the alien invaders once and for all.
Chief Shen is a results-oriented individual who rarely shies away from conflict and finds it impossible to be complacent; a moment not spent working with her hands is a moment wasted.
Trivia[]
- In exchanges between Dr. Tygan, Central and Shen, she is occasionally referred to as "Doctor", but is more commonly called "Shen". Logistically, given her backstory, it's not possible she could have earned a traditional doctorate through a university.
- Lily has a personal GREMLIN nicknamed "ROV-R", which can be seen around engineering and when researching Psionic Gate. She is also seen deployed with ROV-R on the Lost Towers mission as the equivalent of a GREMLIN Mk. 3. Shen treats ROV-R like a pet rather than a device, implying a strong connection between them.
- Equipping Lily with a Medikit on the Lost Towers mission gives her 5 Medical Protocol charges alongside an immunity to poison, which allows her to traverse the second phase of the mission without asphyxiating from Julian's poison gas output.
- In XCOM 2 – Shen’s Last Gift DLC Launch Trailer it is shown by flag that Lily's nationality is Chinese. However in-game it is shown by flag that Lily's nationality is Chinese-American, via the American flag. Because of Lily's nationality being a Taiwanese it is presumed that XCOM 2 – Shen’s Last Gift DLC Launch Trailer was marketed for China.