OPENQUERY End-of-file Error

I am trying to shorten an query string I am using in an OPENQUERY, to get it less than 4k. In order to do that, I have tried to put some repeating logic into a subquery factoring clause (starting a subquery with a WITH clause). I cannot post the exact query as it has some business sensitive information, but the basic structure is

SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY( server, '
SELECT

*
FROM

(
WITH a AS
(
SELECT

a,
b,
c
FROM

table1
)
SELECT

x,
y,
z
FROM

a a1
INNER JOIN

table2 t2
ON a1.a = t2.a
)
')

When I do this, I keeping getting an error from the OLE DB provider saying 'End-of-file on communication channel'. This problem only seems to occur when I put a WITH clause in my query. Has anyone else ever had a similar problem, and has anyone found a way to deal with the problem?