A novel code combining system based on Reed-Muller codes is presented. Because of their simple structure RM codes are simple to decode using a trellis based soft maximum likelihood decoder (SMLD). The decoder exploits the modular structure of the RM code to construct a set of nested trellises which minimise the complexity of the decoder by re-using the results of previous decoding attempts. A protocol utilising this technique to produce an efficient code combining ARQ-scheme is also introduced.