Project: PLAGUE BLOSSOM

Out of the many experiments carried out in the Tankado Clan Special Research Facility No. 731's Biological Research Labs, Project: PLAGUE BLOSSOM is one of the most tame. PLAGUE BLOSSOM is an ongoing research initiative that is being conducted using powerful computers to simulate the effects of the outbreak of a contagious disease at an empire wide level. This includes diseases that are known and ones that are theoretical.

Simulations are conducted with a variety of different scenarios and conditions with the accounting of the many variables that can affect an outbreak such as movement patterns, travel between territories, and how infectious the disease is among other things. This research project was started by the Tankado Clan after the Black Plague Pandemic of 1317 that wiped out 5% of the entire population of Rokugan.

The pandemic was started by the Unicorn Clan during a major war between both the Tankado Clan and the Phoenix Clan. It started when plague infested rats were used to contaminate the well of a village on the border between the Tankado and Phoenix Clan Regions. This war tactic resulted in what was considered the worst disease outbreak in the history of the empire. After the pandemic ended, the ones responsible for the contamination were forced to commit seppuku for their actions.

It was then that the Tankado Clan realized that something like this could happen again and next time it could be far worse. This was when Project: PLAGUE BLOSSOM was created and work on the computer simulations started. The reason this is being conducted at Facility 731 is because of the fact that the research could be misinterpreted as the Tankado Clan planning to start a pandemic themselves. Especially by the paranoid Scorpion Clan. If it were not for that, then this research would be done elsewhere.

Currently the simulations being conducted involve a contagion known as NRV-1. This virus was found when a group of farmers who were passing though a battlefield spotted a group of obviously dead samurai wearing Unicorn Clan armor wondering around aimlessly. When the farmers approached them the samurai charged at and tried to kill them. After fleeing the scene, they alerted a Phoenix Magistrate who sent some bushi to investigate. The undead were found and neutralized. 

One of them was sent to the Tankado Clan for examination who in turn, sent it to Facility 731. It was there that the virus was discovered and after a few tests on both dead and live subjects, it was named the Necromantic-Ressurrection-Virus 1 (NRV-1). The data was collected and uploaded to the PLAGUE BLOSSOM computers where simulations began. As of now, the simulations project a pandemic within 2-3 weeks should NRV-1 be allowed to spread unrestrained. The virus is classified as a Level 4 Pathogen and must be worked with in a BSL-4 Laboratory.

The Emperor was notified over a secure channel about this finding and a response plan has been created should the virus show up again. NRV-1 spreads through contact with contaminated food and water, and the exchange of bodily fluids between the infected. One person is likely to infect 6 more on average. People who are infected will die within minutes but become undead shortly after. The battlefield that this virus was found on has been completely sterilized with chemicals.

The Tankado Clan hopes that one day the project can be made public.