Try this:
-First boot to your USB High Sierra drive.
- Open terminal and change the date to today by entering: date 0726021018
(this is for date/ time of: 7/26/18 at 2:10 pm ).
High Sierra wont install if the date isn't set to later than when it was released.
- Next, erase and format the drive through terminal, type: diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ MacintoshHD disk0
This may help, I've ran into issues with high sierra and SSDs multiple times and erasing through terminal this way always works.
Next, just continue with the installer and cross your fingers that you surpass that 5 minute mark!