Newbie Hacker Help, What should I be doing? Options

[Tyraxus]

Skraa, chummer. I'm in my very first Shadowrun game, and I have to say, I'm enjoying it so far. However, after our first 'run last weekend (a courier run in Denver), I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what exactly I should be doing or if what I'm doing is right. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

A little background to start: I'm playing an Ork "ex-"Ares security counterhacker - he was drummed out of the security unit due to a Humanis CO, and picked up by a black-ops division, trained, and told to head to Denver, lie low with a cover ID, and they'll get in touch occassionally. Basically, they wanted a Shadowrunner they knew could get certain jobs done and were particularly loyal to the company.

The build is Body 4, Ag 5(7), Reac 4(6), Str 3, Cha 3, Intuit 55, Logic 4, Will 3, Edge 4, with Cracking group 4, Stealth and Electronics groups 3, Interaction group 1, Perception 4, Pistols 6, and Unarmed Combat 2. I've got a pimped-out comm (Sys/Fire6, Signal4, Response 5), all core standard programs at 6, and most of the core hacking programs at either 4 or 6. Wired Reflexes II, Muscle Toner II, pimped out cybereyes III. My main gun is a Fichetti Executive Action modified with Gas Vent III, Ceramic parts, and an integrated sound suppressor, loaded with Stick and Shock rounds. I've got an Ares IV modded for burst fire as well, and a pair of alphaware shock hands for close-in work.

The group has four more players, and what I suspect is a GMPC (the okay kind; he's an amnesiac that we're re-teaching the ropes; he looks like a gunslinger adept, so he's effectively another firing platform for the inevitable gunfights). The others are an elf mage, a human... brick I guess, a human bioware melee specialist, and a human face whose player will probably make it to roughly every other session if we're lucky (IRL issues, but Shadowrun seems forgiving, since every session seems to be an independent run).

So, to the questions. First off, you can probably tell that the group likes combat; that's why I went with Wired II and Muscle Toner II, as well as going to the trouble to work out my gun. With that in mind, I'm wondering if I ought to ask the GM if I can switch pistols to Automatics and go with automatics; sure, they're harder to conceal, but there's always the chameleon coating mod, and I can use assault rifles as well for added versatility. Also, unarmed combat seems... well, I can't imagine ever using it, I took it as a way to not ever be caught off guard and without a usable weapon, but I'm wondering if I should ask to switch to blades and get a retractable spur for the same effect, one less damage, but one more reach.

Second, the actual gameplay. During our first mission, I went to the meet with the Johnson early to do some Matrix recon. I didn't find much in the way of Matrix security (probably because the Mage's recon reported that the place was a spirit lodge of some sort), and almost accidentally hacked the building's financial records (it was the only real node, and the GM said he crit glitched the encryption and IC checks), so I wound up with a bunch of mafia financial data, which I sent to my fixer-broker contact in exchange for 40% of the take from the data auction. This turned out to work in our favour later, when we were ambushed by Triad and Yakuza gangers looking for the courier info; the face managed to not only convince them that "we're not the runners you're looking for," but got them to admit that they didn't know what they were after, and sold them the fixer's contact info to get in on the info auction (Schlock Mercenary fans: "We got paid three times!").

Also, during the adventure, since I'm the hacker and have such a high signal strength link, I told the GM that, unless I was obviously doing something else, I was scanning for nearby nodes like commlinks or vehicles that might be following us. I made several scan checks, with nothing abnormal anywhere around.

Of course, while I thought I was playing my character, the group kind of broke up and it wound up with me and the GM 1on1 a couple of times, which disrupted the flow of the game significantly. So my questions are: is this how one is "supposed" to play a hacker? What am I doing wrong (things my character would know that I don't, for example) and what am I doing exceptionally right? How should I handle gathering paydata without disrupting the session for half an hour at a time? Are there any tricks to playing a hacker, aside from always erasing the datatrail (that's in bold on the cheat sheet I made)?

Also, one specific question: in the Edit writeup, it says a single Edit action can only alter surveillance output for a combat round, and to do so for longer requires taking control of a device. It then points me at the next page where it talks about taking control of devices. The problem is, from the writeup, I'm not sure how to take control of a device. I know the Command program lets you do it, and I assume that I need to actually hack into the system first (a la "Hacking on the Fly"), but I don't see any actual procedure that I can use as a model. I assume I hack in, then make a Hacking + Command test, and then an Edit test to actually edit the output, but that's only an assumption, and I've got no idea what ideal thresholds would be for when the GM asks (we play that you know your specialty, and the GM trusts us enough to ask when he's not sure since we're responsible for knowing it).

Thanks, all. By the way, you're all awesome. Also, my apologies. I didn't intend for this to be a mini novel when I started writing it.