Ventura stuck in Kernel Panic on first boot after install

Tried installing Ventura on my MacBook Pro 12,1 (Retina 13, 2015). Install source is on usb stick in the left sub port and target disk is another usb stick (256GB) on the right usb port. I have verbose output enabled in the boot config and can see that the OS boot crashes with the kernel panic about 2mins into booting.

The MacBook has no internal replacement components and there are no USB hubs between the usb sticks and the MacBook ports.

I repeated the install with different USB sticks 3x so far. Always the same result on first boot with kernel panic.

Any idea what went wrong? I won’t install Ventura or any newer OS on the internal SSD unless I get it to work on the external USB first. Did anyone observe a similar situation? Any fixes or workarounds?