It does! It does! Ooooh I can have so much fun with this... [drool] >:D >:D
Sort of.
There's an addendum -- all melee weapons basing their damage on tonnage lose their special abilities, and function as a club.
If using a Handheld weapon for a melee attack, use the standard club attack rules (see pp. 145-146, TW) for all damage based on tonnage. Fixed-damage melee weapons (such as Chainsaws) deliver damage as normal, but maintain the Handheld Weapons’ restriction that both hands are required for use. Any other, non-melee items mounted in a Handheld mount used in a melee attack are destroyed on a successful physical attack using the Handheld Weapon, though the mount itself may be used for subsequent physical attacks.
So, if
my question is answered in the affirmative, you're better off just carrying a slab of armor instead of mounting a melee weapon. It's got a 1/6 chance of intercepting any arm hit.
The REAL use for handhelds would be on light units operating as special forces.
Say you get artillery support for a battle - give your Spider a handheld TAG unit . Otherwise give him a dual RL-20 handheld to be used in a backstab attack, to be followed by his lasers.
I can also see mechs like my
Megatherium making use of only handhelds in Solaris. It'd be an interesting showman's mech if piloted by a GOOD pilot (to offset the whopping +2 to PS rolls). Alternatively the mech can go to Single heat sinks, drop two er medium lasers and two small lasers, and mount a lift hoist -- to be used as a sheath for your handheld, or to carry a second one.