There's no way Stanislav would have expected to be shot because weapons were not allowed in the Hall of Khans to begin with. Brett Andrews basically smuggled his weapon to the meeting and it was a shock to everyone when he pulled it out.
I don't know that it was a
total shock.
Remember, Andrews thought the Adders were allies right up until they turned on him. They might well have known because he
told them. Alternately, the Adders have a dedicated intelligence branch. They'd already seen him do something similar previously, to the Sharks, to kick off the WoR.
His WoR bio speculates that he might have been about to call out another clan when the Adders called him out instead; a pistol would have come in handy in that case. Also, keep in mind that this wasn't strictly speaking the Hall of Khans. It was an alternate location (the officers' conference room on McKenna's Pride) that was legally equivalent for the purposes of the meeting.
Here's one possible scenario. Imagine that Andrews was going to go after another Clan. He naturally coordinates with the Cobras and Adders, as before. So they know the plan. Let's say he's going after the Scorpions next, and he's cooked up some pretext. He arranges for the Grand Council chamber to be unavailable and so they meet in orbit in MP's wardroom. He calls the Scorpions out, and then shoots their Khans dead. The Cobras and Adders would agree that his act was legal (not being in the
real council chamber) and was simply clever and bold, as it was with Angus Labov. In orbit, Cobra ASFs are standing by to eliminate the Scorpions' ships before they can get the warning out. The Vipers have the lifetime achievement award in the field of self-righteous hypocrisy. When they do it, it's
right. So why not do it?
It's not a terrible plan, but on hearing it, the Cobra and Adder Khans share a look. This is the moment. With but a few tweaks, the fury can be redirected right back onto the Vipers, who have long since outlived their usefulness.
You can imagine a similar scenario if the intended target was the Coyotes (perhaps their Trials of Cleansing were simply a way to weaken them prior to being set upon). Or the Cobras, who had their own crimes and might have been targeted to be crippled or destroyed.
With that said, the Adders clearly were already moving to eliminate the Vipers. N'Buta's warning might not have been grounded in specific knowledge of what was coming, as opposed to general certainty that the Vipers were likely to react in a way that could be twisted against them, and that Andrews was likely to target him directly.
