I hope Marauder648 doesn't mind that I'm gonna steal his format here...
One of the major passenger-transport companies, Cunard, has approached the SLDF with a request to go 'half and half' on a new compact core ship equipped with a Lithium-Fusion battery for service between Terra and major planets. While there exist command circuit passenger services, the expense of such operations is astronomical. Operating a single compact core ship instead of 30 Jumpships is still very expensive, but the Lithium-Fusion battery will enable new and exciting routes to be operated at a speed unheard of for conventional Jumpships. The ecconomics of such a ship lean towards steerage passengers having the highest margin of profit, and acordingly they have been heavily prioritized. However, the expense is too great for the company alone, so they have offered these ships to the SLDF as transports for divisions of infantry, able to move rapidly to trouble spots and defend themselves on route. In the event of a major conflict or uprising, the ships can be refit in 2 months or less at any major yard with appropriate weapons into Armed Merchant Cruisers capable of self escorting with a cargo of more than 10,000 men and women.
The two masters this ship must serve lead to some very stringent requirements...
Cunard wants at least 1000 Ultra-Delux passenger accommodations (20 ton), 1500 Luxury Passenger accommodations (15 tons), 2000 First Class accommodations, and 12,500 Steerage accommodations. That's about 125,000 tons total-and they will look favorably on higher totals.
SLDF is of course, more concerned about moving an entire Division with all it's cargo, and what to do to keep the men and officers from bouncing off the walls or defacing the ship.
2 tons of cargo per passenger, to ensure maximum luggage capacity and minimum transport for SLDF troopers. Minimum 34000 tons cargo.
At least 4 Dropship collars and 20 Smallcraft bays, to ensure rapid transfer of passengers and cargo.
The ship must carry at least 1 year worth of fuel at 1g cruise, or have a very large (200+meter radius) Gravdeck which can rotate slowly enough to provide reasonable gravity with no risk of nausea.
A year's worth of food is also needed, but see below.
Because of the need to ship in fresh food, Cunnard also requests that advanced hydroponics systems for cultivating vegetables, and in-vitro meat cloning tanks be included, sufficient to provide 1 weekly salad for all passengers, and 100 grams of fresh meat daily for all First-class and above passengers. That's 450 kilos of vitro-meat every day, no insect protein. But a thousand-ton installation should handle the meat requirements, if we can grow it in 90 days, and 20 tons of hydroponics is enough to completely feed one human indefinitely, so work with those numbers.
Base crew should include stewards, maids, waitstaff, technicians, barbers, and a full-service surgery in the event of a major medical emergency such as a heart attack or trauma.
Because the SLDF wants this ship to be able to defend itself, they expect there to be carefully concealed mounting points for weapons and removable ballast to allow such attachments.
Lifeboats should be provided at the discretion of the designer. (but a full compliment for passengers alone would run nearly 120,000 tons.)
The ship will be very large, and engine power, armor, and other factors are being left to the designers to settle on.
Weapons should be geared with an eye towards engaging dropships and other irregular targets.
