Black Lotus
The Black Lotus was a modified PCL 27 container ship used by the Camarina Connection.
Characteristics
The Black Lotus carried an operational crew of sixty, but scientists, technicians and enforcers increased her overall complement to 200. She was armed with twenty turbolaser batteries—six each to port and starboard, four each fore and aft—and carried a heterogeneous swarm of fighters, including four TIE/IN interceptors, three standard TIE/LN starfighters, two T-65 X-wing starfighters, one BTL Y-wing starfighter and five Z-95 Headhunters.
History
Originally designed as a colony vessel, the pirates converted the Black Lotus to serve as a mobile factory for the combat drug pentabenzedralyne. To meet the energy needs of the production process, the vessel's engines were enhanced with two retractable arrays carrying photonic collectors, while two retractable platforms were added to the ventral hull, each outfitted with a row of hoppers to transfer the drug to smugglers' freighters.
Behind the scenes
The Black Lotus appears only in the French roleplaying-game magazine Casus Belli 89, but the PCL 27 later appeared in issue 6 of the Heir to the Empire comic-book adaptation.