I Still Have to Clean Up This Mess

"...Wait."

"When exactly did this happen?" Kamp's eyes widened.

"Seventeen hours ago," the chief of staff replied quickly.

"Then tell me, why did I only learn about our Strategic Nuclear Submarine launching Tomahawk cruise missiles—an operation that should only have been carried out under an order personally authorized by my signature—seventeen hours later?" Kamp's eyes were wide.

Did you get something wrong? Shouldn't I have known about something like this immediately? Why did I only find out in the seventeenth hour?

"Actually, Mr. President, that is precisely the problem. We only realized the severity of the situation after several countries made inquiries through diplomatic channels, asking what exactly we meant by this. We immediately verified it with Central Command and discovered that Central Command did not know about it either. Then we contacted several warships in the Red Sea, and they reported a problem."

"After the attack occurred, those warships received a message from the Central Theater Command, telling them it was a combat order and requiring them to keep it confidential and pretend they knew nothing about it."

"But the Central Theater Command did not issue any related orders. There were no records in the internal system either."

The chief of staff spoke with a grave expression.

"So someone commanded our submarine? A Strategic Nuclear Submarine, at that?" Kamp also understood the seriousness of the matter.

"Yes, but the other countries do not know that. They only think we did it," the chief of staff said gravely.

"What about the Michigan?" Kamp immediately asked. "Could there be something wrong with the Michigan?"

"The Michigan is currently maintaining communications silence, but its friend-or-foe identification system is still active. We can receive its location, and our system knows where it is, but because it is under communications silence, we currently have