Scarif vault

This data vault was a six-story-high data vault within the Citadel Tower of Scarif's Imperial security complex that held the plans to the Galactic Empire's planet-destroying battle station, the Death Star. In 0 BBY, the Rebel Alliance squad "Rogue One" infiltrated the data vault and stole the station's technical readouts.

Description
Located on the tropical planet Scarif, the data vault was situated within the Citadel Tower of the Imperial security complex, a research and development installation for the Galactic Empire's Death Star project. A cavernous, refrigerated shaft, the data vault was six stories high and consisted of three towers of stacked data banks, each aglow with dim red lights that indicated the storage status of ten thousand data-tapes. Each tape contained copious amounts of data, such as scientific treatises, bureaucratic memoranda and schematics detailed to a microscopic level. Secured behind a large door and cut off from the Imperial network, the data tapes could only be accessed using a manually-controlled retrieving mechanism behind a glass barrier. After the tape was highlighted green using a computer outside the vault, two handles were used to move the retrieving mechanism up and down the shafts to the desired tape.

History
In 0 BBY, the newly formed Rebel Alliance unit "Rogue One" went on a mission to Scarif to steal the plans to the the Death Star, an Imperial battle station capable of destroying an entire planet.

After infiltrating the complex, Captain Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and reprogrammed Imperial droid, K-2SO found a lone KX-series Security Droid which Kaytoo proceeded to access the data banks of and retrieve a map showing the location of the data vault. Arriving at the vault, Kaytoo knocked out the technician outside and assumed control over the vault's control computer. Upon entering the vault, Erso skimmed through the files in search of the plans and stopped at "stardust," the nickname her father gave her, and realized that they must be the plans. As Kaytoo tried to fight off stormtrooper reinforcements, he used the computer to highlight the data-tape's position. Andor used the retrieving mechanism to get it, however, before he could fully extract it the door control was shot and the device's power went out. Kaytoo implored them to climb to the tape and proceeded to lock the vault before being killed by stormtroopers. Erso shot the glass between them and the data towers and jumped across onto the closest one, with Andor following after her. After she retrieved the data-tape, they climbed up to escape, but before they could, a door opened in the wall revealing Director Orson Krennic and a pair of Death Troopers. Andor covered Erso's escape, killing two Death Troopers before a bolt from Krennic caused him to fall and hit a platform unconscious. Erso, knowing she couldn't save him, continued climbing. Reaching a malfunctioning hatch, Jyn timed her escape, climbing through the exit just in time.

After Erso successfully transmitted the plans to the Rebel Fleet, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the Death Star to fire on the communications array atop the Citadel using a single reactor ignition, pulverizing the transmission tower and hitting a point several kilometers away from the complex. The resulting explosion destroyed the data vault along with the rest of the complex, and in the process, killed the surviving members of "Rogue One."

Appearances

 * Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
 * Rogue One: A Star Wars Story novel