The exorbitant project took 2 years and over 4 billion credits to complete. The Illusive Man created and funded the Lazarus Project, pouring virtually unlimited resources into the belief that only Shepard could stop the Reaper threat to humanity as the Council stood idly by. When Commander Shepard was killed in a Collector attack that also resulted in the destruction of the SSV Normandy, Cerberus was able to recover Shepard's corpse with the help of Liara T'Soni. The Lazarus Project was a Cerberus project, the sole purpose of which was to bring Commander Shepard back from the dead.
