The Scarif vault, standing six stories tall, functioned as a data vault within the Citadel Tower. This tower was a part of the Imperial security complex, situated on the tropical Outer Rim planet of Scarif. Inside, one could find an array of scientific papers, official records, and detailed diagrams, most notably the blueprints for the Galactic Empire's planet-destroying battle station, known as the Death Star. During the events of 1 BBY, a squad from the Rebel Alliance, called "Rogue One", infiltrated the data vault. Their objective was to steal the technical specifications of the station, hoping to uncover a critical weakness.
As a data vault, the Scarif vault was located on the Outer Rim planet of Scarif. It was housed inside the Citadel Tower, which was part of the Imperial security complex. This complex served as a research and development facility for the Galactic Empire's Death Star project. The vault was a large, chilled chamber, six stories in height, featuring three towers of stacked data banks. Each tower had nodes that glowed with faint red lights, indicating the storage status of ten thousand data-tapes. These tapes, stored in individual slots, held vast amounts of information, including scientific papers, bureaucratic memos, and schematics with microscopic detail. Secured behind a massive door, the vault was isolated from the local computer network and could only be accessed using a right hand-print scanner. Inside, the data tapes were protected by a glass barrier and accessed via a manually operated retrieval system. After a tape was highlighted green by a computer located outside the vault, two handles were used to move the retrieval mechanism up and down the towers to the selected tape.
In 1 BBY, the Alliance to Restore the Republic, a rebel group opposing the Galactic Empire, received information that Saw Gerrera, a rebel extremist, had obtained a message from Galen Erso, an Imperial scientist, about a new Imperial [superweapon](/article/superweapon] he had helped design. Consequently, Alliance High Command dispatched Captain Cassian Andor, the reprogrammed Imperial KX-series security droid K-2SO, and Jyn Erso, Galen's estranged daughter, to the Force-sacred moon of Jedha. Their mission was to acquire the message and discover how to destroy the weapon. After meeting with Gerrera, Jyn viewed the holographic message where Galen revealed that the plans for the Death Star, a massive battle station capable of destroying entire planets, were stored in the data vault within the Citadel Tower on Scarif.
A few hours later, Jyn, Andor, and K-2 embarked on an unsanctioned mission to Scarif as members of the newly formed Rebel Alliance unit "Rogue One" with the aim of stealing those very plans.
After infiltrating the complex, the trio encountered a solitary KX-series Security Droid, whose data banks K-2SO then accessed. After finding a map displaying the location of the data vault, a distraction created by members of the Rebel Marine Corps outside allowed the three to proceed to the vault without resistance. Upon arrival, K-2SO incapacitated the technician stationed outside and took control of the vault's control computer. Entering the vault, Jyn quickly scanned through the files, eventually finding "Stardust," the nickname her father used for her, and realized that these must be the plans. As K-2SO fought off stormtrooper reinforcements, he used the computer to highlight the data-tape's location. Andor used the retrieval mechanism to obtain it, but before he could fully extract it, the door control was damaged, and the device lost power. K-2SO urged them to climb to the tape and then proceeded to lock the vault before being killed by stormtroopers.
After removing their disguises, Jyn shot the glass separating them from the data towers and jumped onto the nearest one, with Andor following. After she retrieved the data-tape, they began to climb to escape, but before they could, a door in the wall opened, revealing Director Orson Krennic and two death troopers. Andor covered Jyn's escape, killing two death troopers before Krennic shot him, causing him to fall unconscious onto a platform. Jyn, realizing she couldn't save him, continued climbing. Reaching a malfunctioning hatch, Jyn timed her escape perfectly, climbing through the exit just in time.
Following Jyn's successful transmission of the plans to the Rebel Fleet, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin ordered the Death Star to target the communications array atop the Citadel, using a single reactor ignition. This obliterated the transmission tower and impacted a location several kilometers away from the complex. The resulting explosion annihilated the data vault and the rest of the complex, also killing the surviving members of Rogue One.
The Scarif vault was a setting created for the first Star Wars anthology film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which premiered on December 16, 2016. The vault was first seen in the teaser trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on April 7, 2016.